Menagerie
by GiintokiSakata
Summary: My name is Bernard and I am not a Wizard. I'm a completely average guy... Well, I was up until I made some unfortunate decisions and became friends with a set of Celestial Spirits and am stuck traveling around for awhile to help them return home. OC-centric Fairy Tail side story. Takes place after the Final Alvarez arc. Main cast cameos to come.
1. Chapter 1

Today was a day like any other in the port town of Hargeon in the magical kingdom of Fiore. Boats entering in and out of the dock at the edges of the city. Men, women and children spending their time outside on the streets and enjoying their day, eager for new experiences.

But for some, the term "new experience" hadn't occurred in quite some time. Some who were perfectly content at one point with not having changes occur and were okay with the idea of a "routine." But on a certain day with a certain encounter, one young man with a slowly growing desire for something different or unique to occur in his life would start a journey of his own.

A journey into his own realm of wizardry.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_ Hargeon Thrift shop, 12:30 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Excuse me! Hello!" Said a large man in a suit and tie as he banged on a service desk. The building he was standing in was a thrift shop for clothes and accessories for people to buy pre-owned wares at discounted prices with many racks and mannequins holding up clothing for display. "I have been waiting here for an hour! Does this place have any service?!"

Behind the desk was a curtain to the back area, shuffling out from the back was a young man with a nervous look on his face. He sported an average height and build, a green T-shirt, black baggy pants and a pair of black sandals. A grey and brown beanie on his head to keep his down his long ashen and unkempt hair and a pair of matching black bracelets on his wrists.

"Hi, I'm sorry for taking so long..." Said the young man with a nervous look on his face.

"You should be sorry! My time is valuable and I can't believe I am wasting it here in this used clothing store!" Said the large man.

_"If your time is so valuable, then why are you spending it in a thrift shop, you twit?"_ The young man thought as he put on a fake smile as he listened to the large man complain.

"I was told your store had cheap and low cost clothing and yet I have spent an hour in here and have yet to find a single article of clothing in this place that could be deemed remotely cheap! A pair of disgusting washed up socks in this place are 800 Jewels!" The large man said in an angry and annoyed tone.

"Sir, if you dont understand how a thrift shop works, then I apologize that you came in here in the first place but to some, 800 jewels for a pair of old socks is cheaper than a designer brand place that will cost them an arm and a leg." The young man said with his smile disappearing and his eye twitching profusely.

"I know that already, you obnoxious kid! I wish to buy these for less!" The large man said as he lifted up a large bin filled to the brink with old pre-owned black socks and dumped them all over the countertop. "200 jewels for each pair." He continued as the young mans face then contorted into one of complete rage as he slammed his hands down on the countertop in front of the large man in response.

"You can't be serious right now! That would basically mean I would be selling these socks for practically nothing!" The young man said in frustration.

"Which is fair if you asked me!" The large man shouted back.

"Why would you need all these socks anyway?!" The young man retorted.

"I happen to own a very successful suit and tie company and came up with the idea to sell a pair of socks with all purchases of full complete suits! It's called "a way to make money." Something a moron like you wouldn't understand working in a thrift shop where you make minor coins off the jewel!" The large man said with a haughty attitude after revealing his intentions.

"Whoa, hold up. You're planning to sell old used pairs of socks with full high priced suits? That's ridiculous and stupid!" The young man argued as the large man became frustrated.

"What is your name?! I wish to speak to a manager, right this second!" The large man ranted as he requested the young man's name.

"It's Bernard O'Halloran... And you can shove those socks up your keister!" The young man, revealing his name to be Bernard, had exclaimed as he went in the back behind the curtain.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hargeon Thrift Shop, 2:01 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Bernard sat at a table in the back of the thrift shop as he sat with an older man with a large nose wearing an apron that said "Bossman" on it.

"Bernard, this is the fifth time this month you have had some kind of shouting match with a customer." The old man said.

"Look, Mr. Filler, I'm not trying to deter business or anything but-" Bernard tried to explain but was cut off by his boss named Mr. Filler as he raised his hand.

"No "buts!"' Mr. Filler exclaimed. "What is actually wrong with you? I want to know now!" He continued in a tone that mixed anger and concern.

"...What do you mean by that?" Bernard said with some hesitation.

"When I hired you about two years ago, things were completely okay. You did your job, you made decent money, you put up with the customers who were having problems, you didn't even mind me giving you tons of hours without much free time outside of work... But lately, you have been getting very angry with the customers and have been struggling with doing your job as well as you used to." Mr. Filler described to a slightly nervous Bernard.

"...Maybe I'm just starting to get stressed out a little..." Bernard said as he put his head down slightly.

"No one gets that stressed out that easily... What is really wrong here? You can talk to me, you know?" Mr. Filler said as Bernard remained silent as he scratched an area around the left side of his chest. "Is it because of some of the patrons are wizards?" Mr. Filler questioned.

"No..." Bernard said quietly.

"There's no shame in not being able to perform magic, Bernard. They say only ten percent of the world can actually pull off magic, that's why the wizards guilds are even around. It's not necessary you feel any sort of jealousy or animosity towards them." Mr. Filler explained.

"That's not it!" Bernard said as he continued to look down.

"Well then... If you don't want to spit it out, I am not going to force someone to work who isn't in the mood to put in an effort to do a decent job." Mr. Filler said as he scratched the top of his head, prompting Bernard to look up.

"Dont tell me... I'm fired, aren't I?" Bernard said with a twitch in his eye.

Mr. Filler proceeded to nod to the boys question without saying a word as Bernard stood up and had walked out the curtain to leave the store. As he exited the front of the thrift shop, he clutched as the left side of chest at the same spot he was scratching at earlier.

"Gruf…." Bernard scowled as he walked out of the place, putting his hands in his pockets as he walked down the street.

As Bernard walked down the streets of Hargeon with a sullen look on his face, he passed by a bunch of small businesses and food stores until he wound up sitting on a bench next to the main road in town.

_"Two years down the toilet... All this time spent working there and they throw me out for a couple days of bad performance. They never would have done that back-... Forget it. Calm down Bernard... You look like an idiot right now..."_ Bernard thought as he sat on the bench, pondering his what he was doing and what he was going to do. _"It was a moderately okay job too... I did the same thing every day. Every day..." _He continued to think as he looked down at the ground before turning his attention to the marks in the bench.

_"Oh yeah, I remember this bench. I always sat here for my lunch breaks and I accidently made some of these scratches with my nails scraping it... Every day..." _He continued to think as Bernard then looked over to see a food stand with a man working as a vendor. _"And there is the same guy I always went to buy a hot dog from... Almost every day..."  
_

"Oh damn it! This is so frustrating!" Bernard said aloud as he shouted at the sky, prompting some passerbys to turn their heads to see him being odd and shouting. "Ugh, sorry." Bernard said with an embarrassed look on his face as he saw people stare at him as he clutched at his left side chest again. Standing up from the bench, he walked over to the food vendor. "Um, I would like... the usual?" Bernard questioned to see if the man would give him what he always tended to order.

"A hot dog with chili on it with mustard? You got it." The vendor said as he gave Bernard his food.

_"I've even been eating the same things for the past two years... The hell's wrong with me? I never got so annoyed by little stuff like this before." _Bernard thought as he took a small bite of his hot dog as he walked back to the bench.

Sitting down, Bernard had begun to stare off into the sky as he put down the hot dog next to him.

"Maybe this is a sign that I need something else to happen... Something new or exciting... I'm 20 years old and yet I haven't remotely done anything out of a routine that consisted of waking up in the morning, going to work and then coming home to sleep..." Bernard said aloud to himself.

_"I barely have any money saved up that doesn't go to my tiny room rental... and now that I lost my job, I got to find something else now before I become a homeless_ _bum... Maybe that's the change I need, just a new job... No, that's thinking too small..." _Bernard thought as he reached down to grab another bite of his hot dog. _"I need a major change... Something new and different to happen- Wait, where is my hot dog?" _

As Bernard reached for his hot dog, he noticed all he could feel was the wood from the bench. Turning his head, he noticed a sight that had caused his eye to twitch profusely yet again and as well as shock him into a state of surprise.

Next to him on the bench was a rather odd looking large bird. It sported a large set of black wings and a purple chest, its heads eyebrows were yellow and standing upright high above its black feathered head with its black feet and talons. The bird was also scarfing down what looked to be a hot dog, one that looked similar to Bernards. Standing up, Bernard eyed down the bird with a look of anger in his eyes.

"You are eating my food..." Bernard said with malice in his voice.

The bird, however, had an uninterested look in its eyes as he looked back at Bernard, who was shaking with rage.

"I have never seen whatever you are before... I wonder what you'd taste like..." Bernard said with angry look.

As he said that, the look of disinterest in the bird had changed to a look of worry as he noticed that Bernard was sizing it up with hungry eyes.

"You stupid bird!" Bernard screamed as he then jumped at the bird on the bench, who proceeded to spread its wings and had started to fly off as Bernard missed and fell on his face on the pavement. "Damn bastard... Get back here!" Bernard shouted as he saw the bird fly off with a smirk on its face.

Turning its head, the bird had then shifted its head back to look behind and noticed that Bernard was running after him on foot. Seeing such an action, the bird expressed a look of shock and then begun to flap its wings harder to speed up.

"I might not be much but I can still keep up with a stupid bird like you!" Bernard shouted as he chased the peculiar looking bird that had eaten his meal.

The bird had flew quickly through the air, passing by multiple buildings as Bernard rushed to keep up.

_"Damn... Bird... Got to... Keep up!" _Bernard thought, mentally panting.

The bird had rushed out of the city of Hargeon and into the woods around the city.

"Woods aren't saving you, you piece of crap!" Bernard shouted loudly into the woods. "This shouldn't take too long... I think?" Bernard said to himself with a sweat drop on his head.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hargeon woods, 7:11 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

As the night rolled out and the sun went down, Bernard continued his hunt for the mysterious bird who ate his meal from hours ago. The level of exhaustion on his body was taking it toll as he breathed heavily and laid down against a tree to regain his strength.

"Stupid bird..." Bernard said to himself as he continued to look for the bird. "It's too damn dark out here now..." He continued to speak to himself.

Bernard got up after clutching his left side again and continued his search, looking up at the trees using the moonlight to see better.

"Damn it, this is a mess." Bernard said to himself as he tried to keep looking for the bird. "...Ah ha!" Bernard exclaimed as he saw the bird sitting in a tree, scratching its head and beak with its wing. Looking down at the ground, Bernard found a rock and prepared to pitch it.

"Hey! Asshole!" Bernard shouted as the bird twisted its head in the direction where Bernard shouted from.

The birds eyes opened wide as the rock Bernard threw nailed it right between the eyes as it fell down out of the tree and hit hard on the ground.

"Got you, you stupid pile of bird crap!" Bernard exclaimed with a smirk on his face after he rushed over to where the bird hit the ground. Grabbing the bird by the neck, he pulled it up to his face to meet the bird eye to eye. "I think I'll turn you into a nice stew, that outta make up for the chili dog you poached from me." Bernard said with a sadistic look on his face.

"Blawk! No, don't!" Said the bird to the shock of Bernard as his eyes opened wide, prompting him to drop the animal.

"What the- you can talk?!" Bernard said in shock as he saw the bird try to stand back upright.

"Yes, I can talk! What the hell is wrong with you!?" The bird said in a critical tone.

"What's wrong with me? What is wrong with you?! You ate my lunch!" Bernard said angrily.

"I was hungry!" The bird exclaimed.

"So was I!" Bernard retorted.

"You could buy another! Do I look like I can buy a nice delicious chili dog?!" The bird explained.

"I didn't want to buy another hot dog! I wanted the one you inhaled next to me!" Bernard shouted.

"Hey, I am sorry but I was starving!" The bird explained with an agitated tone.

"It wasn't your damn food to eat!" Bernard said as he approached closer and grabbed the bird by the wings, lifting him up the eye level.

"Oh! You are so lucky right now that I can't do what I can do!" The bird said with a mad look on its face.

"What the hell is that supposed to- Huh?" Bernard continued to speak until he noticed that bird was started to spark up wildly.

As he held the bird, he noticed bolts of red and white electric energy appearing until suddenly a magic circle had appeared right in front of Bernards face.

"Holy crap!" Bernard screamed with wide eyes and a look of fear.

"Whoa!?" The bird shouted at the same time as Bernards scream.

A large bolt of red and white lightning had then emerged and struck the ground where Bernard was standing, the energy attack had forced Bernard and the bird to go flying into a pair of trees opposite distance from eachother.

"Gah!" Bernard clutched at his backside and his left side chest as he still felt the stings from the shock still felt through his body.

"Whoa... I did it!" The bird exclaimed loudly. "I haven't been able to use my magic powers in so long! Hey, random guy, tell me how you- Uhhhh? Hello?" The bird continued as he saw Bernard had a scared face, looking in its direction.

"...The one day I wanted some change in my life and I piss off a bird that's going to kill me..." Bernard said to himself as he looked off randomly into the sky.

"Hey, you alright? I'm not-" The bird said, weirded out at Bernard talking to himself.

"Stay the hell away from me!" Bernard said as he ran away from the bird.

"Wait! Come back!" The bird exclaimed as it started to flap its wings. "I need to talk to you!" It said as it chased after Bernard, who begun to run back into Hargeon with the bird following close behind.

* * *

**And so begins the journey. Welcome to the Menagerie, a Fairy Tail side story. This is a first for me after making... and failing... to make a set of My Hero Academia fanfics so I figured I'd try something else and go for a more quick and shorter chapter lengths to speed up production on chapters. More to come and stay tuned for more. Also to those confused at the Jewel to American dollar ratio: it's 100 Jewel = $1 American. **


	2. Chapter 2

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hargeon, 8:25 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

_"Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!" _Bernard thought as he ran through the streets of Hargeon to escape his pursuer. "Of course! The one day I wanted my life to be different and I am chased by a dangerous bird thing!" he shouted to himself.

Looking behind him as he turned the corners of buildings, he saw the bird overheard was still following.

"Kid, slow down! I just want to talk!" The bird exclaimed loudly as he continued to follow Bernard.

_"I gotta cut him off somewhere... Oh! An alley!" _Bernard thought as he decided to jump into an alleyway and hid inside a nearby garbage can to avoid being spotted. _"Really hoping this works..."_ He continued thinking as the bird then descended into the alley to look for Bernard.

"Oh no, I lost him! Damn it, I got to find him! And fast!" The bird said aloud as it turned around and flew out of the alleyway back into the sky over the town.

"Ok, it's gone..." Bernard said out loud as he pushed off the lid to the garbage can he hid in. "Now I just gotta sneak home to my place..."

Bernard then began to sneak around the city streets to avoid being spotted by the bird. He had stopped when he had reached a small little complex with multiple windows.

"Hello casa de crap..." Bernard said to himself outside of where he lived as he walked through the front door. Walking upstairs and down a hallway, he then went to a door and opened it up to where he lived, a room that could be described as a closet.

The room had almost no space on the floor, no kitchen, no bathroom, not even a nightstand. Inside the room were just plain white walls, a single window to the outside and on the floor was a mattress that took up most of the space.

_"What a day..."_ Bernard thought as he walked into his tiny apartment, standing on top of the mattress as he rubbing his left side before proceeding to take off his beanie and stretch out his back. "Okay... Glad that's over with... Now, first thing in the morning, I got to go buy a newspaper in town and see if there is any "help wanted" postings." Bernard said as he scratched the back of his neck after throwing his beanie on the floor.

"But for now, I can relax- Huh?!" Bernard continued to talk to himself until he turned his head and saw a sight he wasn't hoping was real.

Outside the window to his apartment was the familiar face of the talking bird-like creature he had tried so hard to escape, flapping its wings to stay in the air and staring right at Bernard. Turning around, the bird had flew away to get some distance until it flew back around towards the window of Bernards home at breakneck speed.

Head first, the bird had broke through the window of Bernards home, glass shattering and knocking the window out of the wall as the bird had now entered Bernards home.

"Ahhhhh!" Bernard screamed as he was now fearing for his life as the creature that zapped him earlier was flapping around inside his incredibly tiny living space. "Okay, I'm sorry for trying to eat you! Please don't kill me!" Bernard said as he got down on all fours and begged not to be killed.

"For the thirtieth time kid! I am not going to kill you!" The bird exclaimed loudly.

"...Huh?" Bernard mumbled as he put his head up.

"I was trying to ask you something in the woods! But then you ran off like an ass!" The bird said in a criticizing tone as it flew down to the floor and put its wings to its sides.

"Because you shocked me!" Bernard shouted back.

Suddenly, their conversation was cut by the sound of loud banging against the wall of Bernards room, prompting both Bernard and the bird to turn their heads.

"Bernard! Stop making loud noises! It's late!" Said the voice of a disgruntled neighbor from behind the wall.

"Oh uh... S-sorry, Mrs. Klopeck…" Bernard said with an embarrassed tone, attempting to calm down his neighbor from the other side of the wall before turning his attention back to the bird as they both began to look at eachother. "Alright fine, what do you want to talk about that's so important?" He said as he sat down in front of the bird on the mattress floor with his arms folded.

"Okay, now we are being civil. That's nice." The bird joked.

"Will you just spit it out already." Bernard said with an agitated tone while avoiding shouting.

"I want to know how you were able to make it so I could use my power." The bird said while pointing its wing at Bernard.

"What do you mean "how was I able?" You zapped me with Lightning Magic." Bernard retorted.

"Lightning Magic I haven't been able to use in two and a half months!" The bird loudly proclaimed.

"Quiet!" Bernard said as he pointed at the wall to remind the bird.

"Oh right, sorry." The bird apologized. "I haven't been able to use magic energy in months without losing all my power. I want to know now how you made me be able to have enough to even be able to pull off an attack like that." The bird said.

"Losing all your energy? The hell does that mean?" Bernard questioned.

"Hmph…" The bird proceeded to flap its wings and flew over to the remains of what used to be a windowsill in Bernards home.

"Very well, I will tell you who I am and maybe that will help." The bird said as it opened its wings to strike a dramatic pose. "My name is Corvus and I am a Celestial Spirit. My gate is the Gate of the Crow and my key is of the silver variety."

As the bird named Corvus described himself to Bernard, Bernards face had morphed into the face of someone unconvinced.

"That sounds like crap... Also you're a crow?" Bernard questioned.

"Yes! I am- Ugh." Corvus proceeded to cut himself short to prevent waking Bernard's neighbors. "Yes. I am a crow. And a Celestial Spirit. A very decent one at that, thank you very much." Corvus explained.

"...I thought crows are supposed to be all black?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"So I look a little different! Doesn't mean I'm not a crow!" Corvus said with an offended tone.

"Okay, but that doesn't explain how you're a Celestial Spirit." Bernard said, still unconvinced.

"Didn't you see that magic show I did out there in the woods? No regular animal can pull off a lightning bolt like that." Corvus said in a tone that sounded like he was praising himself as Bernard was still unsure.

"... Alright, lets say I do believe that you're a Celestial Spirit. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with whomever you're contracted to?" Bernard asked Corvus.

"...It's a long story..." Corvus said with a tone of aggravation.

"Alright then, why were you in the woods?" Bernard continued questioning.

"I've been living there for about three months now... Living off the fat of the land like any other animal." Corvus said as he swooped off the windowsill back onto the mattress floor.

"Three months? Wait, shouldn't you be back in the Celestial World by now?" Bernard said.

"I wish..." Corvus said with a bit of an annoyed tone, prompting Bernard to raise an eyebrow. "I don't want to talk about it right now..." The crow said in a complaining tone.

"Hmmmm… Look it's getting late... And I want to sleep so I am going to go to bed." Bernard said as he laid back on the floor mattress.

"Can I stay here?" Corvus asked.

"No!" Bernard exclaimed angrily as he sat back up.

"Why not!?" Corvus responded with a similar anger.

"You broke my window and chased me around town! Why would I let you sleep here!?" Bernard exclaimed loudly.

Their argument was then cut off by the sound of banging on the wall again.

"Bernard! Shut up!" The next door Mrs. Klopeck shouted from behind the wall.

"S-S-sorry! Good night!" Bernard shouted as he laid back down as Corvus proceeded to lay down on the mattress floor as well.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hargeon, 6:25 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

The sun had come up over the horizon and light begun to fill the town of Hargeon. As he opened his eyes, Bernard was greeted by the unfortunate sight of Corvus laying on the floor sprawled out and drooling on his mattress.

"Will you stop drooling on my mattress!" Bernard shouted, causing Corvus to wake up.

"Squack! Where am I?!" Corvus said as he flailed around on the floor before realizing where he was. "Oh that's right, I'm here..."

"Ugh..." Bernard grunted as he started to squeeze the area between his eyes to calm his nerves. Bernard then proceeded to stand up, putting his beanie back on and grabbing his shoes.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Corvus said as he flapped his wings into the air to meet Bernard at eye level.

"I'm going out... To get a newspaper... To go job hunting... You can leave now." Bernard said in an annoyed tone as he brushed passed the crow, clutching his left side once again and walking out of his closet-like home.

Leaving the complex, Bernard begun to walk down the street as Corvus proceeded to follow him by flying out the destroyed window.

"Why are you still following me?" Bernard said as he continued to walk.

"I'm not leaving until we're done talking." Corvus said as he flapped his wings to keep up.

"Ugh. Fine! What do you want from me?" Bernard said annoyed.

"Look, I have been stuck here for three whole months. For a Celestial Spirit, that's a bit much. As a silver key spirit, I shouldn't be here this long. Back in my world, I heard stories about Leo the Lion, the leader of the twelve Zodiac keys had managed to stay in this world for years on his own power but I'm not him." Corvus explained.

"Okay? And?" Bernard said unenthusiastically.

"For some reason last night, you somehow gave me a good amount of the energy that I had lost over the last three months I've been stuck here. Which means, I need your help." Corvus said as they stopped at a newspaper stand.

"And how can I actually help when I dont know how I could have possibly did that? I'm not a wizard since I can't use magical power so it's not like I could do it again if I could." Bernard said as he reached for a paper off the stand.

"Hmmmmm..." Corvus mumbled as he put his wing on Bernards hand as it grabbed the newspaper.

As Bernard grabbed the newspaper with Corvus's hand touching his, Corvus felt a small surge of energy enter him as he started to spark a little.

"Whoa!" Bernard said as he noticed Corvus starting to spark lightning again.

"Now I feel like I have a little bit more energy to be in this world." Corvus said casually as he stopped being covered in small electric bolts. "Look, I dont know how but it's obvious something about you is giving me the energy I need to survive. So please, help a crow out?"

"Not happening, I don't want to be around a flying lightning rod." Bernard started to walk away as Corvus watched him leave.

"Oh come on! You might be able to help us!" Corvus exclaimed loudly prompting Bernard to stop walking.

'"Us?"' Bernard said as he turned around to look back at the crow.

"Um... I mean "me." My mistake." Corvus said as he begun to sweat a little.

"No... You said "Us." As in "more than just me."' Bernard said as he walked back to confront Corvus with eyes full of suspicion.

"Ugh..." Corvus begun to scratch the back of his head with one of his wings. "Okay... Maybe I should explain..."

"Do it..." Bernard said while crossing his arms.

"I'm not the only Celestial Spirit stuck here... I have a friend that's also stuck." Corvus said as he flew down to the ground and stood on the concrete sidewalk.

Bernard was silent as he was unsure how to process this news.

"If it's possible, you think could follow me?" Corvus said as he flew back up into the air and then turned towards the direction of the woods.

"... Ugh. Fine, not like I got anything better to do..." Bernard said scratching his head as he begun to follow Corvus.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hargeon Woods, 7:58 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Corvus flew through the woods as Bernard walked behind him to follow, brushing past the trees and foliage.

"Not much farther now." Corvus said as looked back to see Bernard walking.

"You said that four minutes ago!" Bernard exclaimed loudly. "How deep in these woods were you and this other spirit staying?"

'"Fat of the land" remember? We had to form our own shelter and hunt to survive, especially since we both have animal forms." Corvus explained as he flew.

"So this other one's an animal too?" Bernard said as he tried to avoid tripping over tree roots.

"Yeah, bit of a silent type too." Corvus said.

"Uh huh..." Bernard said as he looked around the woods. "Hmmmmm..." Bernard became worried as he noticed the forest was further away from the town.

Suddenly, Bernard felt like he was being watched, or stalked by a predator. The hairs on the back of his neck started to stand upright as if he felt something was going to pounce on him.

Turning around, he noticed a bush was starting to rustle as if something was inside it. He gulped and swallowed spit as a sign of nervousness. Without warning, out from a bushes came a creature that jumped at Bernard.

"Gaaah!" Bernard yelled as the creature that jumped at him had proceeded to swipe at him with a claw and tore his shirt on the left side of his chest. Falling back, Bernard had tried to get some distance from the creature that scratched him as he sat in front of a tree.

The creature had the shape of a blue furred fox but was larger than a normal one as it was around the same size as a large dog. It had greyish-white paws with claws and a set of fangs in its mouth. A large blue tail that matched its fur that ended in a greyish-white tip that matched its paws. It also had an x-shaped mark on its forehead.

"Uh, Corvus?! A little help please!" Bernard said as he clutched at his left side where he was scratched. The blue fox had then begun to prepare to pounce one again and proceeded to jump with its mouth open to take a bite out of Bernard when Corvus had intervened in front of the fox.

"Vulp! Stop!" Corvus shouted as he got in-between Bernard and the blue fox. "He's a friend Vulp! Trust me!" Corvus explained as the fox looked behind Corvus to see Bernard slightly shaken by its attempt to attack him.

The fox then proceeded to change its position from an attacking stance to one of a dog sitting as it calmed down.

"Hey, you alright kid?" Corvus said as he turned around to face Bernard.

"Not completely!" Bernard complained as he checked where he was scratched, prompting Corvus to look at his chest to do the same.

"Doesn't seem to be a real wound anywhere on your chest, you should be- Huh?" Corvus continued until he noticed a peculiar sight on Bernards body. "What the heck is that?" The crow asked.

On Bernards left side was the top of a glowing gem stone embedded into the left side of his chest, right above his left breast and where his heart ws internally.

"Kid, is that a Lacrima?" Corvus said as he stared with the fox at Bernards chest.

"...Yes, its a Lacrima…." Bernard said in a defeated tone.

"What's it doing there, sticking out of you like that?" Corvus questioned.

"...It's helping me... I have a problem with my heart." Bernard explained in a depressed tone.

"It helps you?" Corvus asked surprised.

"My heart beats slowly and irregularly, this Lacrima makes it beat like a normal heart." Bernard explained as he rubbed the Lacrima on his chest.

"Does it ever run out of energy?" Corvus continued to question.

"Not technically... It's something called a "Renewable Energy Lacrima." Basically, it's some kind of special Lacrima that doesn't run out of energy on its own, it just refills itself with time from absorbing energy from the air." Bernard said as he sat up.

"Wait a minute... So you are saying, this thing is making your heart tick while it has a restorable energy on its own?" Corvus said as the fox just watched Bernard explain.

"Basically yeah... Soooooo, I'm guessing this is your friend?" Bernard said as he looked at the fox.

"Huh? Oh right!" Corvus exclaimed after being distracted. "This is my friend who is also stuck here, his name is Vulpecula, the silver key Celestial Spirit of the Gate of the Fox. You can call him "Vulp" for short because his name is a bit of a mouthful."

"Uhhh, hi?" Bernard said unsure of how to speak to the silent blue fox as it stared at him. Vulp then proceeded to walk over to Bernard as he was sitting at proceeded to lay on Bernards lap like a dog would. "Uhhh?! Is this normal for him?" Bernard questioned.

"Wow, he warmed up to you fast." Corvus said surprised. "Maybe this is his way of apologizing for slashing at you."

Bernard, unsure of what to do as Vulp laid on his lap, then proceeded to casually pet Vulp's backside, thinking it was the right call to make. Vulp then proceeded to nuzzle himself on Bernard lap like a pet towards its owner.

"Wow he is much nicer when he isn't trying to eat me." Bernard said with a small smile as Corvus looked on happy that they were getting along.

"Alright, enough mingling. We got something to show you kid." Corvus said as he motioned for Vulp to get off Bernards lap. As Bernard stood up, he proceeded to follow Corvus as he led the way with Vulp following Bernard beside him.

The trio then stopped at a small rock formation left in the ground next to some tree. Corvus then proceeded to land next to the rocks and push them out of the way as they were covering a small hole in the ground. Reaching in with his beak, Corvus had pulled out a small jar covered in dirt and put it in front of Bernard.

"What's this?" Bernard said as he picked up the jar and opened it. Inside he found two silver keys but covered in corrosion and wear. "Are these your keys?"

"They are but they sure as heck dont look good right?" Corvus said with a serious look.

"How'd they get like this?" Bernard questioned as he tried to scratch at some of the rust on one of the keys.

"Lucy Heartfilia…" Corvus said with an aggravated tone.

"Lucy who?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, it's not her fault the keys are like that but she is partially to blame to why we are stuck here." Corvus sighed as he said that. "Three months ago, we were contracted to some nobleman who was travelling around Hargeon and he was hunting for one of the golden Zodiac keys. There is only twelve in existence, thirteen if you count the black key of Ophiuchus." Corvus explained.

"Okay?" Bernard said as he put the keys back in the jar.

"Lucy Heartfilia is a Celestial Wizard who is contracted nine out of the twelve gold keys. Originally, she had ten but she broke Aquarius' key during some conflict and Aquarius is out there somewhere. Lets just say, because of this girl, the value of silver has degraded considerably..." Corvus said as he slumped his head, looking at the keys.

"Whats that mean?" Bernard questioned.

"Celestial Wizards are starting to decrease in number because of her and some other girl who has the other gold Zodiac keys that Lucy doesn't have. A lot of people don't want the silver ones anymore because there is no value in them in comparison to getting their hands on the gold keys." Corvus said with a depressed tone. "So our contractor damaged the keys to kingdom come, summoned us out here and left us behind out of spite towards the girl... The guy said; "learning to summon Celestial Spirits was the biggest waste of time in my life" after leaving us out."

"That's…." Bernard cut himself off as he didn't know what to say. He then turned his head towards Vulp who was looking up at Bernard and staring at him.

"The gold Zodiac key spirits are strong enough to open and close their own gates should the need arise... But silver keys don't which is why we are stuck here. We dont want to use our magic power either because eventually we could go back to the spirit world but whats the point? Our keys in this world are damaged, not broken. No one is going to summon us..." Corvus explained with a tone of depression in his voice.

"Why don't you guys just go back then? You obviously don't want to be here too long." Bernard said as he kneeled in front of Corvus.

"The point of the Celestial Spirits is contracting to wizards and assisting them should they need the help. The whole purpose of our kind is to come to this world and then go back when we aren't needed. Well, me and Vulp aren't needed and we can't go back..." Corvus said as he picked up the keys off the ground and dropped them back in the hole. "It's a struggle just find a point in this world when your point is to assist people who don't care anymore..."

"...Okay, why are you telling me this then?" Bernard said as he stood up.

"Vulp, check this out." Corvus asked for Vulp to watch as he lifted his wings and begun to spark electricity. Out of the sky, a red and white lightning bolt had struck a nearby tree next to where the trio was standing. Vulp and Bernards eyes had opened wide as they saw Corvus unleash his lightning magic.

"Now you try. Touch the kids hand." Corvus motioned for Vulp to touch Bernard. Vulp had then proceed to wag his tail and brush it against Bernards hand as suddenly, Vulp had begun to glow slightly.

The fur on his tail then started to react to Vulps renewed energy as the whiskers of hair on his tail had begun to form into spike-like protrusions. Vulp had then faced the tree that Corvus had burned with lightning and then spun in place as his tail had grew in size and became a large flail-like weapon, destroying the tree as Bernard watched as Vulp decimated the remains.

"Alright! Nice!" Corvus exclaimed as he lifted his wings in approval.

"What was that?" Bernard said in astonishment.

"Me and Vulp are combat type Celestial Spirits. I can use Lightning Magic as you can tell from before and Vulp's fur is able to morph and change shape. He can make his hair turn into spikes, his tail can stretch out and he can even make his claws larger with the right amount of magic power." Corvus explained to Bernard.

"Huh..." Bernard said slightly bewildered by their abilities being show to him.

"Kid, I can't completely explain it." Corvus said as he caught Bernards attention. "But you have given us back a fraction of the power we both had lost months ago because we weren't able to use our abilities. I think even though Vulp is a mute, he can agree with me in saying this; we haven't felt this decent in weeks."

"And how was I able to do that? I've never had magic powers like a wizard, at least, not since I got this rock in my chest." Bernard said as he pointed at his Lacrima pacemaker.

"Well after seeing that thing and you telling me its a "renewable energy" whatever, the great scientist named Corvus has a theory about that." Corvus stated in a joking matter to Bernard and Vulp who had unimpressed expressions.

"I believe that stone is harboring your bodies natural magic abilities. The stone has its own renewable energy that's keeping your heart pumping but it's also sucking off your bodies natural magics at well as its own." Corvus tried to explain. "So me and Vulp are a pair of creatures that run on magical energy, much like a Celestial Wizard has to use some of their energy to keep the gates open when they summon one of us. Your Lacrima, that's feeding energy to your heart that has its own power plus your power, is giving me and Vulp energy to not only thrive in this world but also giving us the ability to use our powers. So in other words, kid, you're a living energy siphon!" Corvus exclaimed like it was a scientific breakthrough.

"...That's seriously stupid..." Bernard said with a straight face. "You pretty much described me as a cow and you are both milking machines sucking out stuff from me..." Bernard said disturbed.

"Yeah well, it's stuff we need to survive!" Corvus shouted loudly.

"Well I don't feel comfortable being two Celestial Spirits energy fountain, so what do you want from me?" Bernard said as he looked back and forth between Vulp and Corvus.

"Well I have an idea... What if you took us and our keys to a Celestial Wizard?" Corvus suggested.

"Huh?" Bernard said confused.

"We take our keys to someone who can you use Celestial Spirit Magic, we give them the keys and bring them back with us to the Celestial Spirit world to get someone to repair them and poof! We are back in business, no problems!" Corvus explained.

"That sounds... Incredibly simple?" Bernard said in response.

"Well it;s not like I know every person who has Celestial Spirit keys. This is where you come in." Corvus said as he caught Bernards attention. "Just take us to where you think some Celestial Spirit wizards might be and then the rest is set."

"Do I look like someone who knows where those types of wizards congregate?" Bernard said unenthusiastic to the idea.

"Guilds?" Corvus said plainly

"...Oh... Right..." Bernard said as he admitted to asking a dumb question. "I'm just not sure about doing this really, I seriously need to get a job and then find a new place to live since the windows busted and- Huh?" Cutting himself off, he looked down and saw a peculiar sight.

Corvus and Vulp had proceeded to give a pair of sad eyes directed at Bernard in an attempt to guilt him into helping them.

"Dont look at me like that! It's going to make me feel like crap!" Bernard exclaimed loudly as the two spirits continued. "Guh!... Ok fine! Just stop it with the sad look!"

"Awesome!" Crovus exclaimed as he stopped looking sad and Vulp jumped up and down in excitement as Bernard relented to helping them get home. "So any ideas on where to find a Celestial Spirit wizard?"

"How about that one girl you mentioned? Lucy or whatever her name was?" Bernard said in thought.

"What?! No way! The last person I want help from is that girl!" Corvus expressed in a state of anger.

"Well if it's the same Lucy that I heard works for the Fairy Tail guild over in Magnolia, it would make this whole thing we are doing very quick and painless." Bernard said as he turned around to head back towards the town. "This shouldn't take more than two days at most then because Hargeon is so close to Magnolia."

"Ugh... Fine but I won't be nice to her..." Corvus said as he begun to follow Bernard back to Hargeon, now with Vulp joining them.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hargeon Port, 9:13 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Nighttime had emerged in Hargeon as leftover ships had docked in the port. Small security staff had been patrolling the area as small crews were doing minor work aboard their ships.

Hiding behind a set of barrels on the dock was the trio of Bernard, Vulp and Corvus who were looking around for any potential spotters.

"Is there any reason we are sneaking aboard a ship at night? Couldn't we have just waited until morning?" Corvus whispered to the newly dressed Bernard; now wearing a brown button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, green cargo pants and a set of black sneakers with the same beanie he was wearing earlier.

"Yes there is and it's called "saving money."' Bernard whispered back.

"Are you really this cheap that you are choosing to be a stowaway on some ship just to avoid paying for a ship ticket?" Corvus whispered in a criticizing tone.

"Look, a ship to Magnolia and back will take us two days. None of the trains in Hargeon are currently headed for Magnolia this week and if we took a carriage, they will charge out the nose... and it's money I dont have the ability to spend at the moment." Bernard said with a twitch in his eye.

"Well alright then- Oop! Here comes somebody." Corvus whispered as Bernard pushed him and Vulp down to hide themselves behind the barrels as some thuggish looking men with lanterns had walked past the barrels.

"Okay move!" Bernard motioned for the fox and crow to follow him aboard as they got up the walkway attached to a cargo barge with the name "Justice Prevails" painted on the side of the hull.

Walking around the deck of the ship and passing some cargo containers, the trio stopped behind one of the containers.

"Alright, the coast is clear." Bernard breathed a sign of relief as he sat down against the side of the cargo box with Vulp sitting next to him.

"No kidding, so this is supposed to be headed for Magnolia tonight?" Corvus said landed on top of the box Bernard was sitting against to look around for people.

"Yeah, apparently it's supposed to be going at midnight. Supposed to be a furniture ship too so these boxes are full of junk." Bernard said as he smacked the side of the cargo box.

"Hey! Don't make a sound! We are going to get caught!" Corvus exclaimed telling Bernard to not make noise.

"Oh right, sorry." Bernard said as he stopped banging against the cargo container.

Suddenly, after Bernard stopped banging, a banging noise was heard coming from the container again.

"I thought I said stop!" Corvus said as he flew down towards Bernard.

"It wasn't me!" Bernard said annoyed.

"What?" Corvus said as he and Bernard heard the banging once again.

"... I think its coming from the container." Bernard said as Vulp and Corvus followed him to the doors of the box.

Opening the doors, inside the container had caused Bernard, Corvus and Vulps jaws to drop in shock. Inside was a group of women and children chained to the walls of the box in tattered clothing.

"Hey Corvus…" Bernard said with a tone of worry.

"Yeah kid?..." Corvis said with a similar tone.

"I dont think we are on a furniture cargo ship..." Bernard said as he swallowed spit.

* * *

**Chapter 2 Complete. Bernard, the jobless "not wizard" with a pacemaker has formed an alliance with the Celestial Spirits Corvus and Vulpecula or "Vulp" for short to bring them back to Celestial Spirit world. And the journey has taken a disturbing turn. Doesn't look like this will be a "short" trip after all. **

**I thank you for reading and be prepared for the next chapter. **


	3. Chapter 3

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Cargo Ship, 9:42 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Deep within the hull of the cargo ship docked at the port of Hargeon, a group of women and children were kept chained to the floor of the lowest point of the boat.

"Please, let us go..." A young woman said as she cradled a small boy in fear as a thuggish looking man walked up to her.

"Shut your trap!" The man shouted as he struck the woman with the back of his fist, knocking her to the ground. "Just keep your voice down if you know whats good for you." He continued as the small boy she was cradling was checking on her as the thug walked away.

"Can't wait to get out of port, I'm tired of playing babysitter." The thug-like man said as he approached two other thugs standing guard against a door.

"Ha! Don't be so down, at least you got the easy job. Some of the boys are getting tired of looking around town for potential." One of the guard thugs mentioned.

"Who knew finding single women who have children to be so hard? Can't believe the clients are into that." The other guard thug said scratching his face.

"Once the boss comes later, we finally can get out of Hargeon?" One of the guard thugs questioned.

"Around midnight is when he's supposed to come." The thug who struck the woman from before had said.

"Finally! Good news, boys and girls!" The one guard thug had exclaimed to the crowd of captives. "You all get to enjoy a nice cruise very soon! Hahaha!" He continued to the sight of the women and children cowered in fear of what will happen to them.

Unbeknownst to the guards and the crowd of people, however, was a trio of unwelcome guests watching from the inside of an air vent they crawled through from the deck.

"Okay... this is messed up..." Bernard said to Corvus and Vulp as they watched from the vent.

"I think we found something we agree on..." Corvus exclaimed with a look of concern.

"We gotta get out of this vent..." Bernard suggested as he motioned for Corvus and Vulp to follow him back through the vent.

Climbing up and out of the vent, the trio reached the top deck of the ship, next to the entrance to the captains quarters and the helm where the ship's wheel was.

"This is not good at all." Corvus said as they all got out.

"Why are they keeping the women and children down there and also have people in the cargo containers on the deck?" Bernard questioned as Vulp looked around for potential spotters.

"Maybe it's to move the women from the containers into the hull so it makes the ship appear incognito? You said earlier this boat's supposed to be delivering furniture, right?" Corvus surmised.

"Crap, this is too much for me." Bernard said as he started to rub his Lacrima pacemaker on his left side. "We gotta tell some proper authorities or something, we can't stay here any longer." He suggested, opting for the trio to leave.

"You think the Magic Council can send anyone in time? Before we leave the port?" Corvus questioned as Bernard remained silent as he pondered what Corvus said.

_"Crap... He has a point, the guards said this ship is leaving at midnight and that's too soon for anyone to come stop these guys..." _Bernard thought with concern

"What do you think we should do kid?" Corvus asked, catching Bernards attention.

"Why are you asking me? I don't know." Bernard said unsure.

"I'm asking because we're stuck on a slave ship with some bad people onboard..." Corvus said as he started to flap his wings to meet Bernard at eye level.

"That still doesn't explain why you are asking me for what we should do now?" Bernard said with irritation in his voice.

"Hey, you are the one who is supposed to be helping me and Vulp get to Magnolia, this situation is a massive roadblock." Corvus said with a similar tone of irritation.

"Well sorry "birdbrain" but I didn't expect to be dealing with a group of slave traders on a ship filled with kidnapping victims." Bernard said angrily.

"I'm a crow damn it! Don't call me- Blergh!" Corvus begun to speak loudly until he was cut off by the feeling of something smacking him in the face.

"Bluegh!" Bernard similarly grunted as he was also smacked in the face.

Looking over, both Bernard and Corvus' attention had shifted to Vulp, whose tail had taken the form of a pair of blue hairy hands that he had used to hit the both of them. Vulp then motioned his head for the two of them to follow him.

"Looks like Vulp has something he wants us to see." Corvus said as he followed behind Vulp with Bernard following suit.

On a far side of the ship, Vulp had used his hairy hand tail to lift a tarp that was covering something. Pulling it back, Vulp had revealed to Corvus and Bernard a large pile of lifeboats that had sets of oars in both of them.

"Lifeboats?" Bernard said raising an eyebrow.

"Nice work, Vulp. You found us an escape route." Corvus said as he landed inside one of the lifeboats. "Hey kid, grab one side and push this over the- what's up?" The crow asked before he looked up at Bernard.

"Hmmmmmm..." Bernard looked at the lifeboats in thought. "I think there is enough here..." Bernard stated.

"Enough for what?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"For all the people trapped aboard..." Bernard said as he looked at the floor of the deck and then back at the cargo containers.

"Wait? What?" Corvus said in surprise.

"Hey Vulp… Was that why you wanted us to find these lifeboats?" Bernard asked as he looked at the silent fox who proceeded to nod his head as a sign of confirmation.

"Vulp, you can't be serious? You actually expect us to be able to save these people?" Corvus said as he flew up out of the lifeboat and back to the floor of the ship. "We only have so much power right now from the kid." The crow explained.

Vulp then proceeded to move his tail in Bernards direction as if asking for a handout.

"What do you want?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"I... Think he wants you to give us more energy." Corvus said trying to interpret Vulps actions.

"More?" Bernard replied in surprise.

"...I guess he wants to make sure we can succeed." Corvus assumed.

"I don't know, I already gave you some of my Lacrimas power earlier today..." Bernard said with some hesitation.

"Hmmmmmm... You know what, fine. I'll do it." Corvus said as he lifted his wing, motioned to Bernard to touch it.

"You too?" Bernard said surprised.

"Way I sees it... If we called the Magic Council for help, they'd arrest us too." Corvus said as if he had realized something.

"How'd you figure that out?" Bernard said as he kneeled in front of Corvus and Vulp.

"We'd have to make a statement to the Council if we went to them for help with something like this right? How does; "We tried to sneak aboard the ship to get a free ride to Magnolia and found the slaves" sound to the authorities?" Corvus explained to Bernard who proceeded to sweat at possibility of that happening.

"...Yeah I don't want that..." Bernard said with a tone of worry. "May as well do this ourselves..." Bernard continued as he put his hands on Corvus' wing and Vulps tail.

A surge of energy then proceeded to move out of Bernards heart Lacrima and then went into the Celestial Spirits. In response, Corvus begun to spark up red and white electricity and Vulp's hair begun to stand up and move on its own before they both proceeded to turn back to normal.

"Oh man! That felt good, I feel like a brand new Celestial Spirit!" Corvus said with an air of enthusiasm. "So what's- Huh?" Corvus continued until he noticing something wrong.

Bernard, still kneeling, had started to clutch at his left side while breathing heavily, showing signs of a state of pain.

"Whoa, hey, kid? You alright?" Corvus said with concern.

"I... think I will be..." Bernard said as he breathed slowly.

"You must have given us too much of the power pumping your ticker. You might wanna work on that." Corvus surmised.

"How am I supposed to... Know how much... I'm putting out? I've never done this before." Bernard said between breathes as he continued to clutch his chest.

"We'll deal with that later... For now, let's get to wrecking this place. Here's the plan: I'll head up to the captain's quarters to find anything important. Vulp, you should start causing a mess below deck." Corvus strategized as Vulp nodded.

"There's two floors below. The bottom one is where the captives are being held and the middle hull area should be where the crew are. That's where you should start doing some damage." Bernard speculated as Vulp proceeded to walk off towards the entrance to the inner parts of the ship. "What should I do?" Bernard questioned to Corvus.

"Sit and stay hidden by the lifeboats." Corvus stated with a serious tone.

"Seriously?" Bernard said as he sat down next to the ship rails while clutching his heart still.

"We're gonna need someone to direct the captives to the lifeboats, right? And no offense, with the way you look now, you're no good to anyone if you get yourself killed." Corvus explained as Bernard sat silently.

"...Fine..." Bernard said as he tried to calm his breathing and let his Lacrima regain power as Corvus flew up towards the captains quarters.

Below deck, Vulp had descended a small staircase and had approached some of thuggish-looking men standing near some doors to the crew cabins.

"Hey guys, look what I found!" One of the thugs exclaimed, catching some of the others attention.

"The heck is that thing? A dog?" One of the other thugs said confused.

"No you moron, look at the tail, I think its a fox. A blue and grey fox." Another thug had claimed as Vulp just stared blankly at them. "What do you want?" He continued.

"Hey, what if we caught it and brought it to the galley? I heard fox stew can be pretty tasty." Said another thug as he approached the group of men watching Vulp.

"Better idea, what if we catch it and sold it when we get to Magnolia? A fox with that kind of coat has to be worth something right?" Said one of the thugs as they started to laugh at the possibilities of what to do with Vulp.

Vulp, tired of listening to them, had then proceeded to shift his tail into a flail-like weapon. Increasing its size to roughly the same as the thugs, Vulp had swung it in their direction and proceeded to catch all of them with his tail, smashing them through the wall to one of the crew cabins. Eye swirling and coiling in pain, they were all knocked out with a single blow.

"What the heck was that?!" Said the voice of another crewmen as small groups of the crew had begun to emerge out of their cabins after hearing the noise.

"How did this thing get on the ship!?" One of the crew exclaimed as he picked up a sword, followed by several of his crewmates picking up swords as well.

"Well whatever it is, it's not getting out of here alive!" Another crewmate exclaimed loudly as Vulp's flail-like tail had changed shape once again to a multitude of different curved blades as he eyed down his targets.

Meanwhile, in the captains quarters, Corvus proceeded to break through a small window on the entrance door.

_"Okay, perfect. I'm in."_ Corvus thought as he looked around the captains quarters as well as the area where the ship's wheelhouse was. _"Alright, lets see if I can find anything on who this ships captain is." _The crow pondered as he begun to search.

Floating around, Corvus had begun to direct his attention towards a table with a series of maps and compasses laid out on it.

_"I'm definitely not a ship crow because I can't figure out any of these map thingies..."_ Corvus thought in confusion as he tried to look at the maps and markings to no avail. He then proceeded to look over at the main steering wheel for the ship and noticing a green orb sticking out of the center.

"Magic powered ship huh?" Corvus said aloud to himself. _"All you gotta do is put some energy into this and the ship can automatically leave the port without being tied down so whomever runs this place is definitely someone with magic. And a ship like this with the name "Justice Prevails" on the side, you'd think the person with the keys to the thing would be a decent person." _Corvus thought as he stared at the wheel before turning his head over to the wall.

Hanging on the wall was a photo, prompting Corvus to fly up to the picture for any sort of intel. Looking at the photo, he saw an incredibly unusual trio standing in front of a logo of a laughing red and yellow head. The three people in the photo visually consisted of a pink haired woman sporting red lipstick, a white kimono and a sheathed samurai katana. Another person was a male with pale white skin and covered in a large amount of makeup with spandex leather pants and long hair that stretched over the ground he was standing on. Lastly, the final person was a rather large and muscular individual with an owl-like head wearing only shorts and sneakers and a massive dual-torpedo shaped jetpack on his back.

_"Now this is what I would call an "odd bunch..." Who the heck are these guys?" _Corvus thought as he looked at the photo.

Meanwhile, back on the deck, Bernard proceeded to stand up and stretch, feeling better.

"Ahhh… Good, I'm starting to get some of my energy back." Bernard said as he looked around for any spotters on the top deck. "Really hope the other two are alright with what they are doing right now..." He said to himself as he looked in the direction of the entrance to the hull.

"Is now the time to worrying about someone other than yourself, evil-doer?" Said a mysteriously regal and manly voice.

The sound of another person startled Bernard as he twisted and turned to find where it was coming from. Looking down, Bernard then noticed a shadow being cast against the moonlight and proceeded to look up.

Floating in the sky was an extremely muscular man with an owl-like head sporting only sneakers and pair of board shorts with a massive jetpack attached to his body looking down at Bernard.

"Today is the worst day of your life, young criminal! For you have stepped aboard my vessel uninvited!" The owl-headed man proclaimed loudly. "Now, I, Fukuro, shall punish you in the name of justice!" The owl-headed man named Fukuro proclaimed as he posed against the moonlight.

_"This night just got a whole lot worse..." _Bernard thought to himself as he swallowed spit.

* * *

**So much for a peaceful trip to Magnolia as the team of Bernard, Corvus and Vulp have decided to take the Heroic path on their "supposedly easy" journey. With Vulp handling the crew on his own and Corvus looking for anything important, Bernard is now confronted by the ships Captain: Fukuro (Yes, THAT Fukuro that anyone who has seen the Tower of Heaven arc should remember). Will Bernard be able to handle himself on his own? Find out next time! **

**Authors Note: (I know its a shorter chapter but I think it's better I shorten some of these to keep the flow going with how I am pacing myself and the story)**


	4. Chapter 4

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hargeon Port, 11:25 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Under the deck of the slaver ship, countless bodies of the thug-like crew were sprawled all over the halls. Some were knocked out on the ground, others were sticking out of holes in the walls with large welts and cuts on their bodies.

"Run away!" Exclaimed a crew member as he ran down the hallway into a group of crewmembers who were still able to fight.

"You idiot! Why are you running! It's just a fox!" Another crew member said as he held a sword in both hands as the crew member that ran away hid behind him.

"You don't get it man! That thing is beating up our guys so fast, there's almost no one to control the ship- Oh no, there it is!" The scared crew member explained before getting cutting off.

Approaching the group was Vulp, his hair standing upright like quills and spikes as he stared down the group with a look of fury on his face.

"Bring it on you stupid mutt!" Said the thug holding the sword in both hands as the other thug cowered in fear behind him.

Tucking his head down, Vulp proceeded to roll his body up into a ball and spun on the ground like a tire being revved up.

"What the? Oh no!" The thug said as Vulp came roaming at the group of thugs.

Like a bowling ball landing a strikes on pins, Vulp had mowed through the crowd of crewmates as they went flying into the walls of the hallway, knocked unconscious in pain.

Turning himself back to normal, Vulp walked down the hallway past the bodies of incapacitated thugs as he stopped at a pair of double doors that led into the room where the captive women and children were.

Using his magical powers, Vulp's tail had begun to shapeshift and turned into a set of hairy hands. Full force, Vulp had pushed opened the door with maximum strength. On the other side was a set of guards who were crushed against the wall and the door from the full force of the slam.

'"Ahhh!"' Shouted some of the women and children in the room in surprise as Vulp walked into the room. Using his powers, Vulp had morphed the hairy hands of his tail into a series of curved blades that he had stretched out towards the captives.

"P-Please! Don't hurt us!" Said one of the kids as they and the adult women shook with fear and uncertainty.

Swinging his tails, Vulp cut through the chains and shackles on the ships prisoners, freeing them from captivity.

"W-We're freed!" Stated one of the women prisoners as the group of captives looked at Vulp who motioned for the people to follow him.

"I-I think it wants us to follow him." Said one of the children as the collective of former prisoners followed Vulp out of the room.

Meanwhile, back in the captain's quarters, Corvus had continued to look around for anything important.

_"Nothing... I've looked up and down this stupid room and haven't found anything useful..." _Thought Corvus as he stood on the steering wheel of the ship.

"Besides a photo of a bunch of freaks, I got nothing… Wonder how the kids doing- Huh?" Corvus said aloud until he noticed something peculiar as he looked out the window of the captains quarters.

"Stop chasing me you stupid bird thing!" Shouted Bernard as he ran around the top deck to escape his pursuer.

"You cannot escape the might of justice, evil-doer!" Fukuro exclaimed as he flew behind Bernard using his jetpack to increase his speed.

"Enough with that "justice" crap!" Bernard exclaimed as he dodged and weaved through the cargo containers in attempted to dodge Fukuro attempting to grab him.

"I have you now, hoot!" Fukuro said as he stretched his right arm out and grasped Bernards right leg.

Lifting up Bernard upside to be parallel with his body, Fukuro flew high up into the air above the ship. Bernard looked down at the ship below him in fear at a sure death if he plummeted down and landed back on it.

"Oh crap!" Bernard exclaimed with sweat dripping down his face as his beanie fell off of his head and into the water next to the ship.

"Justice will always prevail against those who commit crimes! So long as I am a hero of justice, evil will never succeed!" Fukuro said as he posed in the air while holding Bernard by his ankle.

"Oh shut up you annoying contradiction!" Bernard said as the blood started to rush to his head while upside down. "What kind of "hero of justice" owns a ship for slave trading!?" He continued with a tone of aggravation.

"The kind that does a good job with delivery for his clients." Fukuro said as he stretched his owl-like head towards Bernards face. "Over a year or two ago, I had managed to get enough money stockpiled from my work in the dark guilds to afford one and I decided to use it to make some side cash!" Fukuro explained.

"With a name like "Justice Prevails," you'd think this ship was owned by someone actually virtuous but nope! You are just a moron who talks out of his ass!" Bernard shouted, sick of hearing the words coming out of Fukuros beak-like mouth.

"That's laughable coming from the evil-doer who stowed aboard a ship to cause trouble." Fukuro stated with a face of annoyance.

"T-thats not relevant!" Bernard screamed in his defense. "Now put me down you asswipe!"

"Gladly, hoot-hoot!" Fukuro said while loosening his grip on Bernard, a face of fear forming on his face as he looked up to see he was going to land on the ship with enough force to not survive.

"Whoa! Not like that! I meant gently!" Bernard said with sweat dripping off his head.

"Consider this your punishment for your wrong-doing! Farewell villain!" Fukuro proudly proclaimed as he let go of Bernard.

Bernard screamed as he fell at full speed back towards the ship, closing his eyes to brace for impact. Mere inches from hitting the deck, Bernard had stopped in the air. Opening his eyes to see that he was still alive, he twisted his head to see how he had not hit the ground. Corvus had grasped the sleeve of Bernards pant leg with his feet to keep him from smashing into a paste.

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but you're a sight for sore eyes Corvus!" Bernard exclaimed with a tone of relief.

"That's nice! But you're heavy as hell!" Corvus exclaimed as he struggled to hold Bernard's weight. Loosening his feet's grip on Bernards leg, Corvus let go of Bernard, causing him to land on his back.

"Gah! What the hell!" Bernard shouted at Corvus in anger as he got back up.

"Hey, it's not my fault that I am a crow and I just tried to lift a normal human! What'd you expect!?" Corvus shouted in his defense.

"A warning before I hit the ground?!" Bernard shouted in response.

"It would seem the villain has survived and has an evil pet to assist him!" The unwelcome voice of Fukuro stated as Bernard and Corvus had turned their attention back to him as he landed feet first on the ship with his arms crossed.

"What's this guys deal?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow as he stared at Fukuro.

"His name is Fukuro, he said this is his ship and I'm assuming he is member of your family." Bernard explained with the last part said sarcastically.

"Just because I am a talking crow doesn't mean all talking bird people are my cousins!" Corvus said with an aggravated tone at Bernard.

"A quarrel between evil-doers has broken out before me! A sure-fire sign of my victory to come!" Fukuro exclaimed with his usual heroic tone to annoyance of Corvus and Bernard.

"So this guy can fly with that weird jet thing on his back?" Corvus whispered a question to Bernard.

"Yeah. And he is strong and fast." Bernard whispered back to Corvus.

"Heh. Too bad for him because fighting in the air is something I do best." Corvus said with a smirk forming on his face.

"It would appear your pet has more bite to his bark than you do." Fukuro said with cracking his knuckles in Corvus and Bernards direction.

"He is not my pet!" Bernard shouted loudly with an angry face. Corvus then proceeded to spark up his body with red and white lightning.

"Hang back here kid and wait for Vulp with the others. This morons mine." Corvus explained as he proceeded to flap his wings and flew high into the air.

"A dogfight? My kind of heroic battle!" Fukuro stated as his jet pack turned on and blasted up into the sky as Bernard looked up at the two.

Corvus, soaring through the air, had attempted to cut off Fukuro before he got any higher in the air by launching himself at Fukuro in attempt to tackle him. Turning to the side slightly, Fukuro had dodged Corvus' attack.

_"Damn it!" _Corvus thought as flew back around in attempt to go back for another tackle.

Cocking back his arm for a strike and using his speed from his jetpack to build momentum, Fukuro had stretched out his fist and punched Corvus directly in the face. Jarred by the pain, Corvus had tried to brush it off by shaking his head left and right to regain composure.

"Going to take a heck of a lot more than that!" Corvus exclaimed loudly as he begun to spark up his lightning attack, blasting a bolt of lightning down from the sky around Fukuro.

Using his intense speed, Fukuro had ducked and weaved past the bolts of lightning Corvus had summoned and got face to face with Corvus.

"Behold! The jaw of justice! Capture!" Fukuro proclaimed as he proceeded to open his mouth. Stretched out extremely wide, his tiny bird-like mouth had become a gaping maw as Corvus looked in shock at the inside of Fukuro's mouth. Clamping down on Corvus, the crow Celestial Spirit was now inside Fukuro's massive mouth with his tail and bird feet sticking out.

"Gross!" Bernard stated as he saw Corvus getting gnawed on by his opponent.

"Yuck! Let go of me! I am not edible!" Corvus shouted while inside Fukuro's mouth.

"C-Corvus! Zap him! You have a shot!" Bernard screamed in the direction of Fukuro attempting to eat his friend.

Inside Fukuros mouth, Corvus started to spark up and let loose a large amount of electricity down Fukuros throat. Tasting the bolts of lightning shock his esophagus and stomach, Fukuro had spit out Corvus, now soaking in saliva as he fell back towards the ship.

"Oh crap! I gotcha!" Bernard shouted as he leaped forward with his arms outstretched, catching Corvus before he hit the ship.

"I-I feel so violated..." Corvus exclaimed with swirls in his eyes as he laid in Bernards arms.

"Yuck! You're covered in spit!" Bernard said with a disgusted tone as he looked up at Fukuro choking and gagging.

Suddenly, Bernard felt like the ship started to rock and noticed that the ship was starting to move away from where Fukuro was floating in the air.

"Whoa!? Are we moving?!" Bernard shouted out loud as he noticed the cargo barge was beginning to leave the pier.

"About time!" Corvus said as he flailed out of Bernards arms to get the spit off of his body.

"What do you mean "about time?!"' Bernard said as he looked at Corvus.

"Forgot to mention, I kind of... Put some magic into the steering wheel in the captain quarters and let the ship loose." Corvus said with a sly look on his face.

"Are you kidding me!? Now is not the time to let loose boats! Look!" Bernard said as he pointed Corvus back in the direction of Hargeon.

Several homes and businesses were starting to light up as some people started to come out and notice the loud sounds around the pier and watched as a large ship left the docks.

"Great! Now everyone in town is watching what we are doing!" Bernard loudly proclaimed as Fukuro landed back on the ship.

"You fools have messed up everything!" Fukuro proclaimed with a tone of anger in his voice.

"Good!" Corvus shouted in response. "You're the real jerk here!"

"Enough! I am going to get rid of you fools once and for all!" Fukuro said in a rage as he begun to charge up his jetpack.

As he charged up, Bernard and Corvus looked at the ground behind where Fukuro was standing and noticing something was starting to pop up from underneath him. Thrusting out of the ships deck, a sharp blade-like object stabbed Fukuros jetpack.

"Hoot?" Fukuro said as he turned his head around and noticed something wrong with his jetpack. "Uh oh. Ahhhh!" Fukuro screamed as his jetpack had launched him into the air at full speed.

Losing control, Fukuro had flew in a circle at ultra fast speeds. Bernard and Corvus looking up at him spinning to the point he looked like he going to puke until his jetpack started to glow. A loud bang could be heard all the way from the town as Fukuros jetpack exploded and sent him flying into the ocean. Watching him hit the water far away from the ship, Bernard and Corvus looked on.

"...I think he is gone." Bernard said with a look of surprise on his face.

"I hope so, what the hell happened?" Corvus said as he flew back towards the hole where Fukuros jetpack was stabbed.

The sound of a door latch opening was heard as Bernard and Corvus looked up to see the door to the lower parts of the ship. Emerging from the door was the captive women and children and in front of them was Vulp, his tail morphed in the shape of a sword blade, a smug look on his face.

"Y-you came to help us?" one of the former child captives said.

"Oh you bet kid! Big time heroes right here!" Corvus said with a cocky attitude with Bernard giving an annoyed look the crows way.

"Look, this is not the best time for this. Everyone come on, the lifeboats are this way." Bernard said getting everyone's attention as he motioned for everyone to follow him to the where the escape boats are.

Leading the group over to the escape boats, Bernard set up each of the boats and motioned for the groups to squeeze together in the boats to get the max amount of people possible to fit in. Vulp then turned his tail in a large set of hands to lower the groups of people off of the ship with the lifeboats as it continued to sail out into open water until everyone was off.

"Okay, that should be everyone. Now all they got to do is paddle back on their own." Bernard with a content smile on his face.

"Looks like we did some good." Corvus said with a smile forming on his face as well. Shifting their heads, Corvus and Bernard noticed Vulp had walked to the center of the ships deck.

"Hey Vulp, you alright?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow, unsure of what Vulp was doing.

Vulp had used up more of his energy and turned his tail into a large broadsword-like blade. Corvus and Bernard looked on with wide eyes as they saw Vulp proceeded to slam the sword blade through the center of the ship, stabbing through the hull and slicing up the top deck in multiple areas as the cargo containers had proceeded to fall through and break the down the ship causing it to sink.

"Whoa!? Vulp!?" Bernard said in shock as the ship begun to rock violently as it begun to cave in as Vulp leaped over into the last escape boat for Bernard, Corvus and himself.

Cutting loose the bearings and dropping the lifeboat into the ocean, Bernard and Corvus looked with dropped jaws as the ship sunk into the water from the destruction Vulp had caused as Vulp looked on with a happy expression.

"Never knew he was so violent…" Bernard said as he noticed Vulps smile.

"This is new territory for me too..." Corvus said surprised.

"...Let's get out of here." Bernard said as he went to grab the paddles to row back to dry land.

Suddenly, a large muscular hand had gripped the side of the lifeboat that startled the trio as they fell back slightly. Pulling himself up was Fukuro, slightly burnt from the explosion of his jetpack.

'"Justice Prevails" may be gone… But the true hero of justice is still here! And you crooks aren't living to see the sunlight!" Fukuro proclaimed loudly with rage in his voice.

"Crap! I haven't got much magic left in me! Vulp?!" Corvus exclaimed loudly as he motioned for Vulp to help who was low on energy as well from his large destructive attack that sunk the ship. Fukuro had then proceeded to reach his hand out to grab the animals only to be cut off by Bernard stepping in front of him.

"Piss off you stupid hero!" Bernard shouted as he picked up the paddle to the rowboat and bashed Fukuro upside the head.

"Gah!" Fukuro groaned as Bernard kept smacking him in the face with the flat end of the paddle. Slamming it into him multiple times, Fukuros sense of consciousness had begun to fade as Bernard slammed the paddle one more time on top of Fukuro, causing him to lose his grip on the lifeboat and fell into the water.

Bernard was panting heavily as Fukuro sank like his ship into the ocean as Corvus and Vulp looked at his tired state as the sun began to rise over the sea.

"You okay kid?" Corvus said with concern in his voice as he noticed the sunlight emerging.

"That was not good for my heart... But felt good regardless..." Bernard said as he grabbed the other paddle and sat down on the boat. "Been wanting to get a shot in since the fight started..." Bernard said joking.

"Guy said we won't be seeing the sun ever again, well he can suck it! Haha!" Corvus exclaimed as he pointed his wing at the sun as Bernard begun to paddle. "So whats the plan? We go back and be hailed as heroes?"

"Nope." Bernard said flatly as he begun to paddle to the far edge of town.

"What? Why not?" Corvus said confused.

"We destroyed a very large ship in the pier! And I don't want any newspaper headlines about us or have to explain this to the Magic Council!" Bernard shouted angrily as Vulp rested in the boat as Corvus looked around.

"Okay, what are we doing then?" Corvus said unsure.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hargeon Train Station, 7:20 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Early in the morning following the destruction that happened in the ocean late last night, the random people in town in the train station were talking about the events.

"Can you believe that stuff that happened out on the water?" One man said to a group of people discussing what happened.

"It's crazy right? I heard the ship was supposed to be carrying some chairs and couches and my neighbor said the ship was carrying women and children for some slave operation." Another man had said.

"How terrible! I heard that some guy and two animals snuck aboard who blew up the whole thing after freeing the prisoners." A woman in the group had said to continue the conversation.

"Was he a wizard or something? Must have been a tough one than if they were able to cause an entire ship to plummet into the water." Said another woman amongst the crowd.

Hidden from the people in a corner of the train station was Bernard, now carrying a backpack and a change of clothes consisting of a grey button-up with a light purple t-shirt, a pair of blue pants, black and white sneakers and a brown beanie to replace the one he lost with Corvus and Vulp standing behind him.

"Great... Now rumors are being spread... I really hope they don't have my name down anywhere." Bernard said with a hint of worry.

"What's the big deal? You know what they say; "Any publicity is good publicity."' Corvus explained in response to Bernard's concern.

"Not for me... Anyway... They are going to be looking for a guy with a set of animals so you guys need to hide. Get in." Bernard said as he opened the flap to his backpack.

"Nah, we should be fine." Corvus said as Vulp nodded in response.

"No, we aren't going to be fine if you both are walking around in broad daylight and then we get detained as soon as we walk onto a train." Bernard said with a stern look.

"Give us a little more power, I want to try something." Corvus said as he and Vulp stuck out their wing and paw, respectively.

"Ugh, fine..." Bernard said as he gripped their outstretched body parts and transferred some of his energy from his heart Lacrima to the Celestial Spirits.

"Okay! Lets see here!" Corvus exclaimed as he and Vulp started to glow slightly to Bernards confusion. Suddenly, the two animals disappeared into a series of light particles that moved towards Bernard's Lacrima pacemaker.

"Uhhh. Guys? Hello? Corvus? Vulp?" Bernard said as he looked around for the two creatures that had vanished.

To his surprise, Bernard then noticed the light particles that went towards chest had reappeared in front of him and begun to take shape. Forming into the shape of a bird and a fox, Corvus and Vulp had appeared once again.

"What the- how'd you do that?!" Said Bernard with a look of surprise on his face.

"Easy, we took some of your energy and used it to convert us into base particles from the Celestial Spirit world. Then we just moved the particles to the source of energy, in other words, your heart pumper." Corvus explained.

"So... What? You could just hide yourselves inside me?" Bernard said with a weirded out expression.

"Better than stuffed in a bag, at least we don't have to worry about space in your Lacrima thingy as particles." Corvus said.

"Okay, I'll be right back, I need to get something... and shake off the weird feeling of knowing you two will be inside me like a mother giving birth... Ugh..." Bernard said feeling grossed out at the concept of him being a mother.

"Yes, mommy. Hehe." Corvus said jokingly as him and Vulp waited for Bernard.

A few minutes later and Bernard returned to the corner where Corvus and Vulp were.

"Whatcha get?" Corvus said to Bernard.

"A ticket for a train." Bernard said as he showed them his train ticket.

"Wait, I thought there wasn't any trains headed for Magnolia for awhile? Reason why we got on that ship in the first place." Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"That's because there aren't any trains going to Magnolia. We aren't heading there anymore." Bernard explained to Corvus and Vulp.

"We aren't?" Corvus said confused.

"I'd rather not go on a boat for awhile after last night so we need a Celestial Spirit wizard to send you guys home with fixed keys but it doesn't specifically need to be Lucy Heartfilia, right? She has the most of the Gold Zodiac keys but not "all" of them. So change of plans." Bernard said as he turned around to look at the train heading for his destination as he pulled out a magazine that said "Sorcerer Weekly" from his backpack.

"Alright? Then who are going to see then and where are we going?" Corvus said as he got close to Bernard with Vulp following suit.

"We are going to the capital city of Fiore, Crocus... Home of the other Celestial wizard with Gold Zodiac keys. The Sabertooth guilds own; Yukino Aguria." Bernard said as he flipped the pages of the magazine to a photo of a young woman with short silver-ish hair with a blue flower hairclip and a blue dress and a set of Celestial Spirit keys in hand.

* * *

**Looks like a meeting between Corvus to bitch out Lucy Heartfilia won't be happening soon as Bernard decided that they aren't going to the town of Magnolia any longer to get help for the human world trapped Celestial Spirits. Now set on taking a train to the Fiore Capital City, Crocus, to find another Celestial Spirit wizard, Yukino Agaria. The trio's journey continues, hopefully with less jetpacked owl men. Stay tuned for more to come in "Menagerie!"**


	5. Chapter 5

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Crocus Train Station, 10:11 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

As trains entered the station in the city of Crocus, the hustle and bustle could be heard all the way from inside the individual train cars. Known as "The Blooming Capital" for its wide variety of flowers that were grown in different locations all throughout, the impressive round lake in the center of the city, the large castle known as "Mercurius" where the royal family lives and the large colosseum that stood on a nearby hill known as the "Domus Flau."

Emerging off a train in the head station of Crocus was Bernard with a backpack on his shoulders and a tired look in his eyes.

_"I did not expect that ride to take more than two days..."_ Bernard thought as he rubbed his eyes as he walked around the train station as particles of light energy begun to come out of his chest with Vulp and Corvus taking shape.

"...We there yet?" Corvus said while yawning and rubbing his eyes with his wings, similarly to Bernard as Vulp copied.

"Yup. We are here." Bernard said as he walked out of the main gate of the train station with the two Celestial Spirits following him.

Standing at the top of the stairs of the station, the trio looked around and saw the vast variety of flowers and people walking around on the brick streets with Corvus and Vulp looking with faces full of surprise at the visual beauty and welcoming atmosphere.

"Wow... This place is really pretty." Corvus said as he flapped his wings up to get into the air as Vulp looked around and smelled the fresh air.

"Uh huh." Bernard said plainly with an unimpressed look in his eyes, drawing the attention of Corvus who was confused.

"Oh come on! You seriously can't be looking at this amazing place and act like it isn't somewhat impressive!" Corvus exclaimed, baffled at Bernards lack of interest.

"You see one fancy looking town, you've seen them all..." Bernard said as he started to walk down the stairs to the city streets.

"Yeah but I've never been here and neither has Vulp so stop acting like an ass!" Corvus stated as he and Vulp followed after Bernard walking down the stairs.

"I'll act however I want to act!" Bernard stated back at Corvus as they begun to stare eachother down.

They continued to look at eachother with frustration until the looks of aggravation that they had turned to looks of worry as they noticed Vulps tail was beginning to spike up as they noticed Vulp was becoming more and more displeased at the two fighting.

"Uh... Sorry." Bernard said with a wince as he was worried of pissing off Vulp.

"Yeah. Same..." Corvus reciprocated Bernards fearful sentiment.

After the pair had exchanged apologies, Vulps tail begun to turn to normal as he calmed down.

"Okay so anyway... Where we headed? That Sabertooth guild hall or whatever?" Corvus asked Bernard.

"Nope, not yet." Bernard said as he motioned for the two to follow him.

"Then where we going?" Corvus said as he flew next to Bernard.

"First, I am going find a place to stay the night and then once we do, we head to Sabertooth to find their Celestial Spirit wizard and send you guys home." Bernard said as the group went down a street.

"Alright, works for me." Corvus said as they turned a corner.

"Oh! Found a place." Bernard said as he pointed in the direction of a small complex.

The location he pointed at was a place with a sign out front that said "Borner Boarding House." Crossing the street, the trio walked over and stood in front of the building.

"Seems like a nice and cheap place." Bernard said as he looked up at the windows of the place, hoping that he won't be spending too much money to stay the night.

"Cheapskate." Corvus said under his breath jokingly.

"Chicken." Bernard said out loud to anger Corvus in response.

"I am a crow!" Corvus said with a furious tone.

"Calm down, I am just kidding." Bernard said with a smirk as he looked at Corvus flying next to him with a disgruntled look on his face. "The heck?" Bernard continued as he noticed something.

Turning around, Corvus and Vulp looked at what Bernard was seeing; a horse and buggy that was parked in front of the boarding house that had a casket in the buggy. The sight of it had caused Corvus to swallow some of the spit in his mouth.

"Well that's... unsettling..." Corvus said as he couldn't take his eyes off the casket.

"...Maybe it's for someone next door?" Bernard questioned as he pointed at the building next to the boarding house. "Lets head in, come on in guys." Bernard continued as he motioned for Vulp and Corvus to enter his heart Lacrima.

Turning into particles and entering Bernards chest, Bernard took a deep breath and walked over to the front door of the boarding house. Knocking on the door, the door proceeded to open on its own as Bernard raised an eyebrow in surprise to the unlocked door to the boarding house.

_"Door unlocked and a carriage outside with a casket in it... This day is getting dark..."_ Bernard thought with a sense of worry forming in his head as he looked inside.

"Um, excuse me?" Bernard said as he looked inside the boarding house for anybody. "Hello?" He continued as he looked around the foyer for any signs of life.

"Is anyone even here- whoa!" Bernard shouted as he looked around for anybody until turning a corner into a waiting area to a sight that shocked Bernard to the point of him dropping his jaw with his eyes wide open.

A short and elderly looking man was standing next to a woman who had her eyes closed laying flat on a couch with no sign of breathing. Standing next to the old man was an unsettling looking tall gentleman sporting a long black coat. His large and wavy dark hair flowed down his backside and the sunglasses and wide brimmed hat he wore seemed to make him appear important yet reclusive. Turning their heads towards the passageway to the waiting area, the pair noticed Bernard looking at them.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry!" Bernard said as he put his hands up in defense.

"No, it's okay! I must have left the door open and forgot to put up a closed sign." The elderly man said as he walked over to Bernard.

"I-I-I came at a bad time, what happ-happened here?" Bernard said stammering and flubbing up his words in embarrassment.

"It's uhhh… My wife, she just passed last night." The elderly man said with a hint of sadness in his voice as he looked back at his wife on the couch with the dark figure watching over her.

"Oh... I am sorry to hear..." Bernard said with a sad look in his face as he kept looking at the darkly dressed man. "Question. Who is that?" He said pointing at the unsettling mans direction.

"Oh him? That's a local mortician. I requested for him to come by when I found my wife." The elderly man said as the darkly dressed man walked over to the pair.

"Hello there, good morning." The disturbing figure said as he faced Bernard. "My name is Markle. Markle Toglafane. Town undertaker and coroner." The undertaker named Markle Toglafane said as he extended his hand for a handshake to Bernard raising his eyebrow in confusion.

"Mark- what?" Bernard said, weirded out by his odd appearance and equally odd sounding name.

"Markle Toglafane." Markle repeated.

_"Murk- Marka- Minkle Tordle- Mackerel Tacoflame?"_ In his head, Bernard was struggling to pronounce the undertakers name correctly as he found his name too confusing to say out loud.

"Mr. Mukl- Ma-ma... Mr. Coroner. Nice to meet you." Bernard gave up and just referred to him by his job title as he shook his hand.

"Now, Mr. Borner, I'll take the deceased from the premises as we discussed and I'll meet with you later to discuss further plans." Markle said as he broke off Bernards handshake and turned his attention back towards the elderly Mr. Borner.

"Very well." Mr. Borner said as he looked at his wife on the couch. "Now... How may I help you?" Mr. Borner said as he turned his attention back to Bernard.

"I... Came here looking for a room to stay?" Bernard said in a bothered tone, unsure if he should be in this building or not.

"Ah ok. Here." Mr. Borner said as he reached into his pants pockets and pulled out a key to a room as Markle Toglafane proceeded to wrap Mr. Borner deceased wife in a tarp. "Go up stairs, first room on the right." Mr. Borner continued as he pointed towards the stairs.

"Okay... Thanks..." Bernard said hesitantly as he grabbed the key and headed towards the stairs. Before leaving the room, Bernard turned his head back and glanced at the coroner one last time and noticing him looming over Mrs. Borners body. Walking upstairs after getting one last glimpse of the coroner, Bernard opened the door to his room.

_"Wow, a bed and a desk. This is already a step up from what I working with before." _Bernard thought as he sat on the bed and opening the window to his room as Corvus and Vulp came out of his body.

"Hey, nice place. What we miss?" Corvus said as he stood on the desk as Vulp laid on the bed.

"Well I apparently am an idiot." Bernard said as he watched the coroner walking to the horse and buggy carrying the tarp covered wife of the boarding house owner.

"You just realized it now?" Corvus said jokingly as Bernard looked at him with a tick mark of anger on his head.

"No, I walked in here not knowing that the guy who runs this places wife had just passed away and stuff got awkward with this coroner guy with an odd name." Bernard said as he scratched his head.

"How odd?" Corvus said raising an eyebrow with interest.

"No idea how to say it but I think the guy was a vampire..." Bernard said plainly as he watched the coroner ride off in his horse drawn carriage.

"...I'm sorry, what?" Corvus said confused.

"He was wearing all dark clothing and couldn't stop looking at the dead. I'm convinced he was a vampire or something." Bernard said as he put his backpack down on the ground.

"Or just some freak. Besides, Vampires don't exist." Corvus said as he moved to the window to look out at the streets.

"Whatever, he looked like one. Let's just get ready to go to Sabertooth." Bernard said as he motioned for the two Celestial Spirits to follow him back towards the door.

"Don't want to bring your backpack?" Corvus said as he reached into Bernard bag and pulled out a log book. "What's this? It says "Ideas for expanding-"' Corvus continued until he was halted from speaking by Bernard ripping the log book out of his wings and putting it back in his bag.

"None of your business!" Bernard said as he grabbed Corvus and Vulp and walked out the room with them in tow.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sabertooth Guildhall, 2:12 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Bernard, Corvus and Vulp were standing outside the front door of the guildhall to the Sabertooth guild, the second strongest wizard guild in the kingdom of Fiore. It was a large and ornate silver building with the symbol of a sharp fanged beast as the logo on the front and containing several of some of the most powerful wizards on the continent such as "the Twin Dragons," Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Cheney and the Celestial Spirit wizard, Yukino Aguria.

"Well, here it is." Bernard said as he stood in front of the guildhall with Corvus and Vulp.

"Huh, impressive place." Corvus said as he admired the buildings architecture.

"I've always wanted to check this place out, I was a big fan of the Sabertooth guild years ago when they were the top guild. Well, until I heard the horror stories." Bernard reminisced.

"Horror stories?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, their guild master was apparently a full on psychopath and caused a ton of problems until he died suspiciously. Then one of the Dragon Slayers took over and made this place better after they dropped from the top spot." Bernard said, explaining the past of Sabertooth.

"Huh, you seem to know a lot about this guild. You a fanboy?" Corvus said with a smirk to Bernards chagrin.

"N-no!" Bernard said with a red embarrassed face. "L-lets just go in..." Bernard said as begun to walk in with Corvus and Vulp following behind.

As they walked in, Bernard stopped at a receptionist desk in the foyer to the guildhall. As he walked up, Corvus and Vulp saw a peculiar looking small creature walk up to them. It looked like a cute green little cat standing on its hindlegs but it was wearing a pink frogs outfit that would confuse some from figuring out its true species of origin.

"Hello." The little cat frog looking creature said to Corvus and Vulp.

"The heck are you? A frog?" Corvus said to the weird yet cute animal.

"Frosch thinks so, too." The cute little creature named Frosch said as he rubbed his temple, seemingly unsure of his own answer.

"You don't even know?" Corvus said with some surprise in his tone. Suddenly, a dark haired man with a scar on his face from the other end of the foyer called for Frosch to come over.

"Frosch! Come here!" The dark haired man said as Frosch waddled over to him.

"Yes, Rogue!" Frosch said to the man named Rogue as they walked away.

_"Well that was odd..." _Corvus thought as he turned his head back towards Bernard at the receptionist counter.

Standing at the receptionist counter, Bernard was shaking with a face full of depression and anger swelling up to the point the receptionists were looking worried. Clutching at his heart Lacrima pacemaker with one of his hands, Bernard had put his other hand on his face in a shameful manner.

"Kid? You okay?" Corvus asked as him and Vulp looked at him with concern on their faces as he turned towards them with a smile that seemed to be masking his aggravation.

"Lets go get lunch..." Bernard said as be begun to walk out of the Sabertooth guildhall.

"What? Kid?! What's wrong?!" Corvus said as he flew over to Bernard with Vulp stopping in front of him to keep him from walking away as they stood outside of the guildhall once again. "What happened?! Why you look down in the dumps?"

"...Turns out we have a problem..." Bernard said as he looked at the ground with a defeated look on his face.

"Oh what now!?" Corvus said with a look of annoyance in his face.

"Turns out Yukino Aguria went on a mission with her sister to another continent and won't be back... For the next four weeks..." Bernard said as Vulp and Corvus' jaws dropped in shock.

"F-f-four... weeks..." Corvus said with a tone full of despair and a twitch in his eyes.

"Yes..." Bernard said sullenly as Vulp and Corvus joined him in looking at the ground with a defeated look in their eyes, their bodies turning pale white in a wave of sadness.

"... Lunch?" Corvus said depressed as Vulp and Bernard proceeded to nod in response that they wanted to get a meal to drown their sorrows.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Small diner, 2:39 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Okay so that will be four grilled cheese sandwiches with a large side of fries, three glasses of water with two straws for the animals and a bag for what you do not finish. Anything else?" Said a waitress as she stood at the end of a booth that Bernard, Corvus and Vulp were sitting in, continuing to sulk at their situation.

"...We'll call you if we want anything else..." Bernard as he looked at the table.

"Alright then?" The waitress said as she walked over to counter, slightly disturbed and wanting to get away from the negative air the trio was giving off.

"This can't be happening..." Corvus said as he looked down at the table.

"I thought we'd have been done by now.…" Bernard said sullenly as Corvus proceeded to brush his face with wings to get some composure back.

"For craps sake! Why the hell did she have to go on a mission off continent!?" Corvus said with his tone of depression shifting into a one of annoyance.

"Well it's not like we could have known about it before hand, we just got here today." Bernard said as he put his arm up on the table and used his hand to support his head.

"Great, now we are back to square one!" Corvus said on the verge of shouting.

"Shhh! This is a public place, you are going to cause problems." Bernard said, trying to get Corvus to be more quiet.

"Ugh, I don't care anymore. This is awful." Corvus said while putting his head back down as the waitress came back with their meal.

"Here is your food. And please try to keep it down." The waitress requested of the group as she walked away.

"Guess it's back to plan A." Bernard said as he picked at some of the fries

"Plan A?" Corvus said as he pecked at the sandwich on the plate in front of him.

"Tomorrow, we are going to look around for a way to Magnolia and head to the Fairy Tail guild." Bernard said as he took a bite of his sandwich.

"Really? We are going to try looking for "dummy" Heartfilia again?" Corvus said in a complaining tone.

"Look, it's the only option we got because I don't know of any other Celestial Spirit wizards we could possibly track down." Bernard explained as Vulp got cheese all over his face from his sandwich, prompting Bernard to grab a napkin and wipe his cheeks.

"Alright, fine. But remember, I am-" Corvus said until he got cut off by Bernard.

"You aren't going to act nice to her. I know already." Bernard said as he finished Corvus' sentence and finished cleaning up Vulp.

"Is this really all we are eating?" Corvus said as he finished eating his grilled cheese sandwich.

"It's all the money I am choosing to spend right now between the three of us since we need to probably spend money for a ride to Magnolia." Bernard said as he continued to pick at the fries.

"I want to drink some booze..." Corvus said as he looked around for the waitress.

"I am not spending my money on liquor Corvus." Bernard said with a serious look on his face.

"Come on kid. This is the perfect opportunity to get blitzed and drown our sorrows in some good stuff!" Corvus said while trying to convince Bernard.

"How do you even know what booze tastes like?" Bernard said confused.

"The Celestial Spirit world can be a pretty fun place from time to time. Hehe." Corvus said with a smirk on his face.

With a raised eye brow, Bernard turned his attention towards Vulp with eyes full of curiosity.

"That true?" Bernard questioned towards Vulp with the silent fox nodding its head in a somewhat agreeing fashion.

"So come on! Let's get some alcohol and drown some of the pain." Corvus continued to pester Bernard into buying drinks.

"...You know what... Screw it, okay." Bernard said as he shrugged his shoulders and decided to finally buy some alcohol. "Excuse me waitress, we'd like to ask for something else."

"Yes?" The waitress said as she walked over to the group.

"What do you guys want?" Bernard said to Corvus and Vulp.

"I'll take a whiskey." Corvus said to the waitress as Vulp shook his head left and right to signify he didn't want anything.

"Okay, three whiskeys." Bernard said as the waitress walked away to get their drinks.

"Three? But Vulp didn't want one." Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"Two of them are for me." Bernard said with a smirk on his face.

"You depressed twit. Hehe." Corvus said with a smirk forming on his face as well.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Small diner, 7:01 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

With the sun down and night time sweeping over Crocus, what originally was just going to be three drinks between the trio turned into a dozen bottles of liquor with Corvus ingesting the most. With the diner on the verge of closing; Bernard, Corvus and Vulp proceeded to finally leave with Bernards spare grilled cheese sandwich in a plastic bag in his hand.

"Hehehe..." Corvus giggled as he flapped around crazily through the air.

"Man, I needed that." Bernard said with a bit of redness in his cheeks and a smirk on his face as Vulp walked next to him to keep an eye on him.

"Screw Lucy Heartfilia!" Corvus shouted loudly through the streets.

"Corvus! Stop shouting! You'll wake people!" Bernard said as Corvus flew upward into the sky slightly while drunk.

"Bleugh…" Corvus groaned as he looked over head and noticed something. "W-whats...?"

"Corvus?" Bernard said as he and Vulp looked up to see Corvus flapping in the air. "What's up?"

"I-I think I see something? Then again... I could just be really wasted." Corvus said as he tried to wipe his eyes with his wings.

Forgetting he was in the air to wipe his eyes, Corvus had fell out of the sky and plummeted towards the ground. Holding out his arms to grab the falling crow, Bernard walked over to where Corvus was falling towards and grabbing him before he hit the brick covered street.

"What'd you think you saw?" Bernard said to the crow that was now in his hands.

"I think I saw... Some old guy walking down an alleyway with some creepy guy wearing sunglasses." Corvus said loosely flailing in Bernards arms.

"What?" Bernard said confused at what Corvus was talking about.

"Weird. What kind of guy wears sunglasses this late in the day?" Corvus said as he pointed in the direction of what he claims he saw.

Curious, Bernard and Vulp proceeded to walk in the direction of where Corvus was pointing.

_"Creepy guy in sunglasses... Wait..." _Bernard thought as they kept walking, now becoming slightly more curious.

Stopping at the corner to where Corvus was pointing, Bernard and the Celestial Spirits creeped their heads forward to look at the two figures in the alley. Seeing the old man and the man in sunglasses, Bernard recognized them as the owner of the boarding house he was staying, Mr. Borner and the oddly named mortician Markle Toglafane that was at the boarding house earlier that day talking to one another.

"Hey, that's the boarding house guy and the creepy undertaker from earlier." Bernard whispered to Corvus and Vulp.

"Any idea what they are talking about?" Corvus whispered curious,

"It's probably nothing, I remember the mortician guy said earlier today they were going to talk about his wife's funeral services later on so I guess that's what they are talking about. We should go before they spot- Huh?" Bernard continued until he noticed an odd look in Vulps face.

Sweating profusely, Vulp gazed in the direction of the two men down the alley with a look of worry on his fox face. Turning his head back towards Corvus in his arms, he saw Corvus had his eyes open wide with a similar look of concern.

"What's wrong?" Bernard whispered with a raised eyebrow at the two animals.

"Kid... Look..." Corvus whispered as he pointed his wing back down the alley with Bernard looking back to the sight of something horrifying.

The mortician's lanky body was caked in blood from his chin to his feet as he was standing close to the body of the old man with his teeth digging deep into the neck of Mr. Borner. A look of pure ecstasy on his face had formed as a sucking noise could be heard coming from Toglafane's mouth. Licking up the blood dripping from Mr. Borners neck as the old mans eyes rolled into the back of his head before slipping out of Toglafane's grasp as he hit the floor with blood still flowing out of his lifeless corpse. Toglafane then proceeded to get on all fours and started to lick up the blood with his tongue like a dog licking up water from its bowl, a creepy yet content expression forming on his face.

Bernard, horrified, stepped back slightly with Vulp following suit with Corvus trying to keep himself quiet in Bernards arms. Kicking a rock on the ground on accident, the rock clanked a little and made a noise causing Bernard to start to drip a cold sweat as Vulp and Corvus looked in the direction of where Bernard hit the rock.

Hearing the noise, Toglafane turned his attention towards the end of the alley where he thought he heard the sound. Standing up and casually walking over to the end of the alley, he started to sniff the air for any peculiar scents. Twisting his head around the corner, he looked for any signs of life. However, all Toglafane saw was empty streets with not a sign of life. Smelling around for any odors, he begun to smell a cheese-like scent coming from the ground in front of him as he looked down and found a grilled cheese sandwich on the floor.

Picking it up, he proceeded to look around once more as he removed his sunglasses to reveal his red lizard-like eyes to get a better look. Shrugging his shoulders, he turned around after throwing the grilled cheese sandwich back on the floor, turning his attention back towards the dead body and sucking up the rest of the blood off the ground. Pushing the body aside after he finished drinking, Toglafane had grasped at a manhole cover with one hand in the alley that lead straight to the sewer system beneath the city. Lifting the cover with ease like it was made of plastic, he grabbed the dead body of Mr. Borner and dragged it with him into the sewers below the city before sealing up the hole behind him.

Unbeknownst to him, however, was the sets of eyes watching him drag the deceased from atop the roof of one of the two buildings the alleyway was made of. Looking down from on high was Bernard, Corvus and Vulp with sweat dripping down their faces and Bernard clutching his heart Lacrima to calm his breathing.

_"Thank the stars that I sobered up a little there from that to drag the kid and Vulp up here..."_ Corvus thought as he breathed heavily with disbelief at what he just saw.

"Hey... Corvus..." Bernard said slowly as he tried to regain his composure.

"...Yeah?" Corvus said with a cold sweat dripping off himself.

"Told you he was a vampire..." Bernard said looking at Corvus with a face racked with fear.

* * *

**Just when you thought our heroes could catch a break, now they find themselves in an even weirder situation. With their only help to get Corvus and Vulp home to the Celestial Spirit world gone, the trio finds themselves with a new problem. A blood sucking problem. What will they do now that the trio has bare witness to a murder right in front of their eyes? Time will tell... And thank you for reading this chapter of "Menagerie." (Also I made a slight change to Bernard's hair color from the first chapter for aesthetic reasons)**


	6. Chapter 6

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Boarding House, 6:15 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

The crack of dawn had started to arise as sunlight begin to fill the beautiful capital of the kingdom of Fiore. As the light shone through the street, the beams coming from the suns rays had started to enter Borners Boarding House and begun to wake Corvus sleeping on the table.

"Blah! Kurgh- Wha-what?" Corvus blabbered as he woke up from the sunlight getting in his face with drool dripping out of his mouth.

Turning his head around and lifting his wing up to keep the light from getting in his eyes, his attention then turned to the sight of Vulp laying on the ground, eyes open.

"Couldn't sleep?" Corvus said to Vulp as Vulp shook his head left and right to signify a no. "I see you didn't get any sleep either..." Corvus said as he turned his attention towards Bernard who was laying on his back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

_"Couldn't be a vampire... It was the morning when he was here yesterday and the sun was shining bright... He couldn't be one..." _Bernard thought as he stared at the ceiling as Corvus flew over to him and landed on his chest.

"Hello? Earthland to kiddo?" Corvus said as Bernard tilted his head to look at the crow.

"I'm thinking..." Bernard said as he went back to looking at the ceiling.

"About what? The vampire?" Corvus said as he looked at Bernard while on his chest.

"No, the quality of the ceilings paint job." Bernard said sarcastically.

"...Okay yeah, stupid question." Corvus said as he scratched the back of his head with his wing.

"The sun was out all day yesterday and not a cloud in the sky..." Bernard said as he got up and sat on the side of the bed with Corvus getting off him and sitting on the side.

"Yeah? And?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"In every piece of fiction I have ever read about vampires, they can't walk around when the sun comes out, unless there was clouds blocking the sun a good amount. And most often, they never have day jobs like being a town undertaker when most people who call a mortician do it in the morning." Bernard said in thought as he looked at the floor with Vulp and Corvus raising an eyebrow in response.

"Okay? Then maybe he isn't. Doesn't change the fact the guy ate the man who owns the room we are in or the weird fact you slept with your socks on last night." Corvus said with curiosity of what Bernard was thinking.

"He had bitten Mr. Borners throat... Then had begun to lick up the blood real quick... Then went below the town through the sewer system..." Bernard said as he continued to think.

Corvus and Vulp then looked at eachother confused at where Bernard was going with his train of thought.

"If he was a real vampire, there wouldn't be any blood on the ground... Yet there was blood everywhere..." Bernard thought as he stood up from the bed and walked over to the window.

"Okay, enough with the rambling kid. What are you going on about?" Corvus said, finally becoming frustrated at Bernard talking to himself.

"I wonder..." Bernard said as he walked towards the door to the room and walked into the hallway.

"Hey, where you going?!" Corvus shouted as he and Vulp followed Bernard.

Walking over to a supply closet, Bernard opened up the door and looked around the floor inside. Reaching down, Bernard picked up an unlit lantern.

"Whatcha going to do with that?" Corvus said as he looked at Bernard holding the lantern.

"To light the way." Bernard said as he turned his head back to the two spirits.

"Light the way where?" Corvus said with further confusion.

"The sewers below the town." Bernard said as he walked back to his room with the lantern with Corvus dropping his jaw in surprise.

"What?!" Corvus shouted as he flew back into the room with Vulp following. "Kid, what are you talking about!?"

"I want to go back to that alley where Mar- Mul- or whatever his name was and look around for any clues." Bernard explained as he put his shoes on.

"And then what?" Corvus said with some concern.

"Vulp, how good is your sense of smell? Nod if it's good, shake left and right if bad." Bernard said to Vulp who proceeded to nod his head in response.

"Whoa! Kid! Enough with the questions and the prepping and stuff! What are we doing?!" Corvus said as he flew up to Bernards face.

"I want to go back to the alley from last night. I want to find any sort of clues we can find on the vampire guy." Bernard said with a serious tone to Corvus and Vulp.

"But... But what about finding a Celestial Spirit wizard? Shouldn't we be focusing on that now? What happened had nothing to do with us." Corvus said with a sign of hesitancy.

"Neither was what happened on the ship back in Hargeon but look what happened..." Bernard said looking into eyes of Corvus.

"Okay... You got me there. But the guy never found us when we saw what he did so we should be in the clear. We should just get back to business and go to Magnolia like we planned." Corvus said, trying to convince Bernard not to do something the crow thought was a bad idea.

"I would love to leave this for the royal army to handle... But we can't go to them for any help in this situation." Bernard explained.

"Why not?" Corvus questioned.

"Do you think they would believe me if I told them I saw a "vampire eating a man in an alleyway" who happened to be a town mortician and hid his victims body in the sewer?" Bernard said as he begun to walk out of his room and down the stairs of the boarding house to the front door with Corvus and Vulp following behind.

"Yeah I guess that makes sense but..." Corvus said in an unsure tone as Bernard had opened the front door and walked outside on to the streets of Crocus.

"Look... I know this is potentially way more dangerous than what we did back in Hargeon. But I have a plan, all we got to do is go back to the alley, then Vulp will sniff around for Mr. Borners blood if there is any left and then we go down and follow the scent." Bernard explained as he walked to where the alley was.

"Okay but... Kid, I don't think this is alright with you having such a bad heart and all to go through with this." Corvus said in a concerned tone.

"So are you guys not going to come then?" Bernard questioned to Vulp and Corvus as he stopped walking, turning to face them.

Corvus and Vulp then looked at eachother, not sure as to how to respond. After exchanging glances, Vulp looked up at Bernard who was sporting a serious expression as he held the lantern in his hands. Corvus then looked at Bernard with an air of fascination.

_"He's acting differently... Like he is more determined than he was the past few days... But why?" _Corvus thought as he noticed Vulp walking over to Bernard.

"Guess you're coming right?" Bernard said as he kneeled down to Vulp and petted his head in response before turning his attention back to Corvus. "How about you?"

"... If you both are going, then I'm going too." Corvus said as he steeled himself before flying over and landing on Bernards right shoulder.

"Never seen you do that before." Bernard said as he turned his head over to look at Corvus perched on him.

"Used to do this from time to time with my previous owner when things got serious. So let's get to work." Corvus said as he looked at Bernard and Vulp with Vulp nodding in agreement as they headed towards the alley.

Reaching the alleyway, Bernard looked around on the ground for anything of note with Corvus and Vulp following suit. As they looked, Bernard spotted his old leftover grilled cheese from the other night on the ground that was now covered in flies and dirt.

_"Damn... Waste of a good sandwich..." _Bernard thought as he looked at the mess with disappointment. "You guys find anything?" Bernard said aloud as the two Celestial Spirits looked around.

"I haven't seen anything on the walls yet. Weird... The old guy was a real gusher last night so with how much blood he spilled, I'm surprised there wasn't anything left here. He must have came back at some point to scoop up the rest." Corvus said as his eyes shifted to spot any blood splatter on the walls. "How about you?" Corvus said as he looked at Vulp.

As Bernard and Corvus looked his way, Vulp was sniffing around on the ground in the alleyway to find any kind of scent, Inching closer to the manhole cover, Vulp stuck his nose deeper into the ground in an attempt to find anything until he suddenly found his nose pressing against a drop of red liquid and begun to sniff it. In response to the smell, Vulp lifted his tail up as a signal.

"Found something?" Corvus said as he and Bernard walked over to him.

"You caught the scent?" Bernard said as Vulp nodded in response. As Vulp and Corvus headed over to the manhole cover to try and lift it up, Bernard reached into his pocket and pulled out a match. Lighting it, Bernard placed it in the lantern he was carrying to use as a light source. "Any luck with that sewer hole cover?" Bernard said as he looked at Corvus and Vulp struggling to lift the cover over their heads.

"How in the... Green hell did... That guy... Lift this stupid thing!" Corvus said as he and Vulp dropped the cover over to the side while panting from the heavy lifting.

_"He made it seem like the cover was lightweight... He must be strong..."_ Bernard thought as he walked over to the hole. Looking into the darkness and flashing the lantern to brighten it up, Bernard saw the walkway for the Crocus sewer system. "Lets get a move on..." Bernard said as he proceeded to slide into the hole followed by Vulp and Corvus who jumped in.

Standing on the walkway to the sewers, a powerful and disgusting aroma proceeded to invade their nostrils as they begun to inhale the raw smell of sewage. Covering their noses, the trio proceeded to look around the corridors.

"Holy crap! It smells like the dead in here!" Corvus said as he held his nostrils on his beak with one of his wings.

"...That's because a dead body was dragged through here, remember?" Bernard said while holding his nose, answering the crows redundant statement.

"...Oh right..." Corvus said as he realized what he said was rather dumb.

As they talked, Vulp proceeded to try and fight the smell of the sewers and tried to sniff out the dead body of Mr. Borner. Looking around, Vulp had then started to move.

"Looks like the fox has an idea where to go." Corvus said as he proceeded to fly up above the sewage line and the walkway to follow Vulp with Bernard following suit.

"Hoping his sense of smell isn't affected by all the stink down here." Bernard said aloud.

"So what happens if we find something down here? The old guy or the vampire or something else entirely?" Corvus asked to Bernard.

"If we find Mr. Borner or any other dead bodies, then the plan is to have one of us stay with the body and then the other two will go back up topside and alert the royal army. We lead them back to it and then it's all up to them to sort it out." Bernard replied.

"Okay, so we just leave it to the kingdoms forces?" Corvus said curious.

"After what happened back in Hargeon, I don't feel like getting my name out there any more than what we did there. It's best we just let someone else handle this because it's taking time away from what we really should be doing." Bernard continued.

"Oh come on, you sure you aren't just doing this to be some big hero that they are going to be talking about in Sorcerer Weekly?" Corvus joked as he looked at an annoyed Bernard.

"No, I'm not doing this to be some hero either... I'm just doing it because the guy he ate was nice enough to give me a place to stay and I at least owe the dead man something now that he has become vampire chow." Bernard explained as they walked.

"Fair enough, but what if we find the creepy guy?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"We execute the ultimate plan." Bernard said with a plain expression.

"What's that?" Corvus asked.

"Run for our lives." Bernard said to Corvus' who was shocked at Bernards overly simplistic plan.

"That's it? Just run for it? Shouldn't we at least try to fight the thing?" Corvus said as he was unsure if they were taking the best approach to handling this.

"Back in Hargeon when you fought Fukuro, you had no idea what kind of skills or powers he was working with. To be honest, I don't like going into a situation where I am completely unsure of what's going to happen which is why we are doing this. I am not a fan of surprises and I'd rather not see you or Vulp fight this guy without some form of coordination. We don't know much about what this guy can do other than the fact he can lift a manhole cover with one hand, he sucks blood and he has a profession as a coroner." Bernard said to Corvus as they continued to follow Vulp down the various pathways in the sewers.

"Actually wait, you think the vampire guy might be down here with us already?" Corvus said as he begun to look around with curiosity.

"Doubt it. He has a day job and its day time so he must be at his mortuary right now. I'm expecting Vulp to find where that place is given how it's the most likely place in town he could be hiding if he isn't down here." Bernard said using deductive reasoning. "Crocus is a big town... This sewer system runs through all the streets in the town itself so in other words, we are practically walking in a maze right now."

"Not a fan of hearing that personally... Lets just hope Vulp finds what we need to find fast." Corvus said with an annoyed expression.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Crocus Sewers, 11:06 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

The trios frustrations began to pile as they looked around every nook and cranny of the underground sewer and felt they made no progress finding anything. Deciding to stop, Bernard put the lantern down on the ground and sat down with Corvus landing next to him with Vulp turning around to face them.

"I feel like we have been down here for hours..." Corvus said annoyed.

"We probably have..." Bernard said in a similarly aggravated tone. "I'm guessing the smell down here really made it harder for you to sniff out a trail huh?" Bernard said as he turned his attention to Vulp.

"I could have probably done a much better job than he did searching around if we weren't down here and I just flew topside and looked for this guys workplace." Corvus said annoyed while looking at Bernard, prompting Vulp to gain a throb mark of anger on his head as he eyed Corvus.

In response to the insult, Vulps tail had started to point upwards and using his powers, proceeded to shapeshift. Becoming large and flat, his tail looked similarly to that of the end of a paddle for a rowboat. Swinging it downward, Vulp then smacked Corvus on his head, forcing the crow Celestial Spirit to bang his head against on the ground from the impacts momentum and leaving a crack.

"Ow! What the hell Vulp!? That really hurt!" Corvus said as he pulled his head up from the ground with a look of fury on his face.

Vulp stared down Corvus with a look of anger of his own, taking offense to Corvus' earlier statement about his usefulness. Intent on fighting his fellow Celestial Spirit, Corvus then proceeded to spark red and white electricity around his body to begin to summon his powers.

"Will both of you knock it off!" Bernard said shouting at the two spirits as they changed their attention from eachother to Bernard. "No good will come from the two of you fighting eachother. Vulp, don't waste your power so frivolously! I have to give you that energy from my pacemaker, remember?!" Bernard said as Vulp proceeded to calm down with a regretful expression on his face.

"Hehe. You got yelled at." Corvus said as he made fun of Vulp.

"Don't you act high and mighty, birdbrain! You're the one coming up with bad suggestions around here. We can't go skulking around for this guy topside because he saw my face yesterday so if he spots me, he knows where we are hiding out. On top of that, it doesn't mean anything if we find where he works until we find any sort of proof that Mr. Borners body isn't down here." Bernard explained as he scolded Corvus.

"Guh…" Corvus grunted in response to Bernard logistically correct argument.

"We need to get back to the matter at hand and then- Huh?" Bernard was going to continue until something caught his attention looking ahead past the Celestial Spirits on the ground. Standing up, he grabbed the lantern and walked forward.

"What's up?" Corvus said with curiosity.

"I think I found something... Look." Bernard said as he walked over to a wall and lifted up his lantern to shine the light in the sewers.

In front of Bernard was a large gaping hole in the sewer system. Inside, it appeared to be the entrance to a cavern that stretched out a long way.

"Vulp, smell this." Bernard said as he asked Vulp to come over and smell the cave entrance. "Anything?" Bernard asked as Vulp smelled around and proceeded to shake his head left and right to signify a "no" response.

"This hole looks like it leads somewhere." Corvus said as he flew over and looked into the darkness of the cave entrance.

"Even though Vulp doesn't smell Mr. Borners blood this way... It's the only lead we got." Bernard said as he took a deep breath and stepped through the passageway with Corvus and Vulp following behind him.

Step by step, the cave passage they went through felt like it wasn't getting any shorter. The darkness spreading around them with the only light source giving them any sight of the area in front of them being the lantern Bernard held in his hands. After continuously walking through the cave, the group reached a crack in a wall.

"Finally found the end?" Corvus questioned as Bernard begun to squeeze himself through the crack with Corvus and Vulp following after him.

Emerging from the passage, the trio had entered a new location; a large cavern that was lightly lit with green lights with various structures scattered amongst the rocks and stalagmites. The structures looked like the wrecked pieces of a castle with stones strung about all over the ground with vast amounts of spires sticking up from the ground.

"The hell is this place?" Corvus said as he looked around at the shattered ground.

"Definitely doesn't look like it's part of the sewer system." Bernard said as he put down the lantern as the lights were making it easier for him and the Celestial Spirits to see without needing it.

As he put it down, Bernard and Corvus' attention had changed to looking at Vulp who was looking upward at a set of spires with a growl. Looking up where he was pointing at, Bernard and Corvus noticed two figures standing atop the rocks.

"It would seem we have some guests in the Palace of Hades." Said a feminine voice from atop the spire.

"And the guy brought some delicious looking pets too!" Said a weirdly childlike male voice next to the feminine figure.

_"Uh oh... We got company... And neither of them sound like the vampire..." _Bernard thought as the two figures jumped down into the light, giving the group a better view.

One of the figures standing before them was a young woman with an attractive figure sporting long black hair that was held in two downward ponytails. Dressed in a purple kimono-like dress and wearing wooden sandals, she had a welcoming yet sadistic smile on her face. Peculiarly, she had a piece of small red paper held in her right hand between her index and middle fingers.

The other person was far more disturbing to look at visually. Circular eyes, thick lips and a set of large forearms, he had an odd hairstyle that looked like the combination of a black mohawk and a mullet flowing down his backside. Wearing a red and yellow short sleeve button up that was open to reveal his chest, blue shorts with a shark design on them and a white rope-like bandanna around his head, he looked like a weird fisherman.

"Excuse me but what is this place?" Bernard asked of the individuals.

"If you are down here then surely you know why." The woman said as her attention was drawn to Vulp staring at her with fighting intent.

"This place is the place where all sinners and criminals of the kingdom of Fiore go. The worst of the worst get sent down here waiting to be brought to their end." The weird man said as he drooled looking at Corvus.

"Don't you drool at me, you weirdo!" Corvus shouted at the weird man, taking offense to the salivating he was doing as he talked and stared at him.

_"Criminals and sinners... Brought to their end... That would mean this place is... And they are... Oh no!"_ Bernard thought grimly as he realized who they were.

"Well now, Uosuke. Lets get to work on todays execution." Said the woman to the weird man named Uosuke as she held up the piece of red paper in her hand and pointed it towards Bernard and the Celestial Spirits.

"You got it Kamika!" Uosuke said to Kamika as he raised his hands that were starting to glow. "It's time for the Hungry Wolf Knights to begin their newest hunt!"

* * *

**Some people can't just catch breaks, can they? In an attempt to uncover some of the truth behind the murder they saw, the trio went below the town to find the dead and wound up in a place they shouldn't belong. Now at the mercy of two of the members of the Hungry Wolf Knights, Uosuke and Kamika. Bernard, Vulp and Corvus now have a fight on their hands with two of Fiore's top executioners. More to come and more to be unveiled. **

**(Hey, Author here, sooo… Originally this chapter was going to be WAY longer until I ran into a bit of a conundrum with how much I was going to have to write down and effectively damage the pacing. I was already cutting this down to two chapters from what this chapter was going to feature but I decided to cut into three chapters because there was THAT much I was trying to come up with. So in terms of length and saving me the trouble of writing that much between posts and saving you, the reader, from reading a chapter that's so long that it could make your eyes bleed from how much there is. This is the chapter, I'm trying to keep things consistent. And thank you to the followers of the story who are liking what I am doing, its appreciative.)**


	7. Chapter 7

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Palace of Hades, 11:56 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Wait a minute! We aren't criminals!" Bernard said to Kamika and Uosuke as they prepared to attack the trio.

"Now is not the time to beg criminal! Paper Blizzard: Red Dance!" Kamika said as she blew a breath of air into the paper she had between her fingers.

As the paper flew into the air, it started to multiply into many smaller pieces. As it spread, the paper had begun to form an inferno of fire in the area between all pieces with the blaze headed for Bernard, Corvus and Vulp.

"Oh crap! Get down!" Corvus screamed as he flew down and knocked Bernard over to get him out of the way of the fire with Vulp running out of the way. "Looks like we are in for it now kid. Time for a fight!" Corvus said on top of Bernard as they hit the ground.

Getting off Bernard, Corvus flew high into the air and swooped down to strike against Kamika who had an unimpressed look in her face. The paper in her hand then changed colors from red to grey, folding and expanding in size, the paper had formed into a large shield as Corvus smacked against the grey colored barrier.

"The grey paper is the god of protection." Kamika said as she watched Corvus fall on the ground after hitting his head.

"Crap! Corvus, get back here!" Bernard shouted as Corvus shook his head to get some of his composure back.

Vulp, growling in anger, then proceeded rush at Uosuke who nonchalantly looked at the fox rushing at him.

"Terrain Effect: Gravity Zone!" Uosuke said as he put his hands up.

Suddenly, Bernard and Vulp had begun to float up into the air as if all the gravity had disappeared from the area around them. Now hanging in mid air, Vulp had begun to spike up the hairs on his tail and stretched his spiked tail to attempt to hit Uosuke.

"Don't think so!" Uosuke said with the same goofy look on his face as he waved his hand to the side, causing Vulps spiked tail to go flying in the direction he waved it towards a wall, leaving it stuck into the wall from the force.

_"Crap, these two have them outmatched. I gotta do something..." _Bernard thought as he noticed Corvus was standing in front of Kamika as her paper changed colors once again from grey into green. _"Her magic has different effects with each change in color..." _Bernard continued to think as he continued to float.

"I think I'll make some nice stew out of you! Terrain Effect: Lava Zone!" Uosuke said drooling as he put up his other hand, which was starting to glow again.

Underneath Vulp and Bernard in the air, a large hole in the ground filled with lava had appeared. The heat was powerful as Bernard and Vulp could feel all the hot air permeating from it and the boiling bubbles popping in the red hot hole made them wince in fear. The situation was becoming more and more dire as Bernard watched Uosuke and Kamika exude faces of pure confidence.

_"He can control space and make the room different... Their magic is perfect for killing people depending on what they choose to use at a given moment... But they are taking their time..." _Bernard thought as he looked down at the two. _"I wonder..."_

"I think we should be ending this. Paper Blizzard: Green Dance." Kamika said as she blew a piece of green paper into the air as it multiplied and spread with a green mist accompanying it. "The green paper is the god of poison. One inhale and a slow death will rip you to pieces from the inside out." Kamika said as she giggled at Corvus who was looking at the mist soon about to envelop him.

"Oh crap!" Corvus said as he felt paralyzed with fear from the smog coming his way.

_"I got it!" _Bernard thought as he had formed a plan in his head. "Corvus! Use your wings!" Bernard shouted at Corvus.

"Huh?! Oh!" Corvus sputtered as he flew back into the air above the gas, flapping his wings with enough force that a gust of wind begun to form and push against the gas and paper, causing it to disperse.

"Tch!" Kamika clicked her tongue in response to her poison paper disappearing.

"Vulp! Stretch to your tail!" Bernard shouted towards Vulp who nodded in response.

Using his magic, Vulp stretched himself towards the direction of where his tail was stuck. Using the momentum to his advantage, Vulp whipped his body at Uosuke, tackling him in the stomach with his backside before going towards the wall where his tail was.

"Blugh! Darn dog!" Uosuke said as he lost his concentration.

"He's a fox you twit! Whoa!" Bernard shouted at Uosuke before the gravity effect wore off and he begun to plummet towards the lava hole. "Help me!" Bernard shouted as Corvus turned around and grabbed Bernard by his shirt and pulling him away from the heated ground.

"I gotcha!" Corvus said as he dropped Bernard back on his feet with Vulp pulling himself out of the wall and running over to where Bernard was. "Hey, nice thinking there on the fly kid!"

"We aren't out of the woods yet." Bernard said as he looked at Kamika whose confident expressions was now replaced with angered ones. Glancing over, he noticed Uosuke still had the same dopey expression but he could tell there was a level of rage growing internally. "Wait for my signal..." Bernard continued while watching their opponents movements.

Extending his arms, Bernard placed his hands on Corvus and Vulps bodies, transferring energy from his heart Lacrima to power up the Celestial Spirits magic.

"Been awhile since the prey of the Hungry Wolf Knights had some spine." Uosuke said with some aggravation in his voice.

"It's sad the other members aren't here but they would spoil all the fun we are going to have with this one." Kamika said to Uosuke, disgruntled.

"Other members? There's more of you?" Bernard said to the knights as he steeled himself.

"We usually roll in a group of five but it's just us right now. Sorry to disappoint." Uosuke said as he lifted his glowing hand up again and a large pile of rocks begun to rise from the ground. "Terrain Effect: Gravity Zone!" He shouted as the rocks flew at breakneck speeds towards Bernard and the Celestial Spirits.

Before the rocks had smashed against the trio, Vulp's tail has changed shape into a vast pile of blue hands and grabbed the large pile of debris that came the groups way. Pulling back, Vulp had thrown the rocks back towards Kamika and Uosuke.

"The yellow paper is the god of lightning! Paper Blizzard: Yellow Dance!" Kamika said as she threw out a piece of yellow paper.

Spreading and multiplying, the yellow paper became a torrent of lightning that spread out. The bolts attacking the debris, the rocks Vulp threw at her and Uosuke had turned into dust from the blast.

"Now!" Bernard shouted as Corvus flew over to where Kamika was standing following her electric blast.

Aiming for her face, Corvus smashed his body against Kamika's face and wrapped his wings around her head, holding himself against her.

"What!? Get off!" Kamika said as she put her hands up on Corvus' body in attempt to pull him off her face. Tightly holding on, Corvus refused to let go as she attempted to rip him from his grip on her skull.

"No can do, "Sweet Cheeks!" Because you and I have something in common!" Corvus said as Kamika continued to struggle.

"What do I have in common with a disgusting bird sinner!?" Kamika shouted as she noticed bolts of red and white lightning start to form around Corvus' body.

"A real electric personality! Haaa!" Corvus shouted as electric energy released from his body onto Kamika.

"Aaaaahhh!" Kamika screamed as the electricity shocked her whole body from her head all the way down to her feet. The pain sensations rummaged through her body and leaving her insides and brain feeling rattled as she fell down, clutching her head in pain and rolling on the floor as Corvus got off her.

"Kamika! Oh man!" Uosuke said as his attention moved over towards his comrades injured body, losing his focus away from Bernard and Vulp.

"Vulp, now!" Bernard shouted as Vulp raced towards Uosuke, altering his tails form into a large mace-like spiked ball.

Twisting his body, Vulp swung his tail around and the large mace-like end slammed against Uosukes body. Stuck to the spiked ball and the momentum propelling him, Uosuke slammed against the wall with Vulp's massive tail crushing him into the wall.

"Gurgh…" Uosuke said as Vulp pulled his large tail off of him, his flattened body peeling off the wall and falling onto the ground.

"Alright! We did it!" Corvus said as Kamika and Uosuke laid on the ground in pain.

"Can't believe it. We actually beat two of the kingdoms top wizards." Bernard said with surprise as he saw the two members of the Hungry Wolf Knights struggled to get up.

"Hey nice work with the order barking, kid. You got the timing down and everything." Corvus said as he turned his attention to Bernard.

"No time for the compliments, we got to get out of here." Bernard said as he motioned for Vulp to come back to where he was.

"Why's that? We took care of the big threat, didn't we?" Corvus said confused.

"We got to get back to finding the vampire and we are trespassing under the castle of the royal family. We need to get out of here before-" Bernard said until he looked ahead towards some of the wreckage of the Palace of Hades and noticed loud metallic footsteps approaching.

Emerging from the darkness, a large contingent of men dressed in chainmail suits of armor with spears and shields appeared. They stood tall with blue and yellow striped cloth strung over their armor with the crest of the royal family, the Fiore kingdom logo, stamped on their chests and shields.

_"Oh crap, the Rune Knights!" _Bernard thought as the royal army known as the Rune Knights marched up to the area where Bernard and the Celestial Spirits beat Kamika and Uosuke, who were still down.

"Who are these knobs?" Corvus said as the knights stopped marching.

"Freeze! For trespassing and assaulting members of the royal kingdoms forces, you are under arrest!" One of the Rune Knights shouted as they pointed their spears towards Bernard, Vulp and Corvus.

"Oh piss off!" Corvus shouted as he begun to spark up with Vulp growling, signifying their desire to keep fighting.

"No! Stop!" Bernard shouted towards Vulp and Corvus.

"Why?! We can take them!" Corvus shouted as the knights inched closer with their spears.

"There's too many of them, I don't want to become an enemy of the country and you guys don't have much energy outside of what I gave earlier. Anything we do will be a bad call to make." Bernard explained as he put his hands up.

"Seriously!?… Ugh... Fine." Corvus said as he landed and put his wings down at his sides as Vulp sat down as well next to Bernard.

"Good. Cooperate and nothing more will be added to your list of crimes." Another Rune Knight had said as he pulled out a pair of hand cuffs that had red orbs attached to them.

Walking over, a pair of Rune Knights with collars with red orbs attached to them had walked over to the Celestial Spirits and placed them around their necks. As they wrapped around their throats, the orbs begun to light up.

"The heck kind of things are these?" Corvus questioned as he scratched at the orb on the collar on his neck.

"Magic cancelling cuffs. The orb is a Lacrima that can prevent any and all magic coming from your body to activate." The Rune Knight explained as him and another one picked up Corvus and Vulp off the ground and held them in their arms.

"Any and all magic- Wait... Oh no!" Corvus said aloud as his head turned in the direction of Bernard as a Rune Knight walked over to him and placed a pair of magic cancelling handcuffs on his wrists.

"Now that these are on, it's time to- Huh?" The Rune Knight in front of Bernard spoke until he noticed something was wrong.

Bernards breathing became heavier and quicker, sweat began to drip heavily from his face and his body became heavier until his legs buckled and he fell face first towards the ground. Gripping at his heart while still in chains, Bernard felt an immense amount of pressure pushing against his chest as the Rune Knights, Corvus, Vulp and even Kamika and Uosuke, who were being lifted up by the Rune Knights, all watched in surprise as Bernard begun to convulse violently in pain.

"Wha-what's happening to him!?" The Rune Knight who placed the cuffs on Bernard said with concern as he watched Bernard clutch his heart in intense pain.

"You idiots!" Corvus said, catching the attention of the Rune Knights, Kamika and Uosuke. "He has a pacemaker Lacrima near his heart! Those dumb cuffs shut it off and it's causing his body to spasm! Take them off!" Corvus explained in surprise.

'"A pacemaker Lacrima!?"' A Rune Knight repeated in surprise. "Take it off of him, he'd die before we get him out of here!" The knight continued.

"G-got it!" The knight who put the cuffs on Bernard said as he removed the magic cancelling cuffs from his wrists.

The feeling of pain started to recede from Bernards body as he could feel his Lacrima helping his heart begun to work its magic inside him once again. Panting in exhaustion, Bernard knelt down on all fours to regain some composure and took deep breaths.

"I'm..." Bernard begun to speak to the surprise of everyone around him. "I'm... Not going to resist... You can take us... Just don't put those back on me... Please..." Bernard said between breaths to the Rune Knights, shocked and disturbed by what they just witnessed.

"Bring them before Chief Arcadios and the princess..." One of the Rune Knights said as Bernard walked forward to follow them with one of the knights holding Corvus and Vulp in his arms with their collars wrapped around their necks.

As they walked, Kamika and Uosuke begun to stand up as they watched as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits walked away in custody.

_"He... Has a pacemaker Lacrima…"_ Kamika thought whilst upset.

_"The top knights of the kingdom... and we lost to a handicapped guy..." _Uosuke thought as he frowned.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mercurius Castle, 1:01 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

As the doors flung open to the throne room of Mercerius, Bernard was now shackled in normal iron cuffs with two Rune Knights at his sides holding him by his shoulders. Coming up from behind was another Rune Knight holding Corvus and Vulp in his arms with magic cancelling collars still wrapped around their necks.

Walking into the room, the group had approached the throne. In front of them were two individuals with an air of importance surrounding them and made Bernard and the Celestial Spirits nervous as the Rune Knights placed Bernard in a kneeling position in front of them with Vulp on one side of him and Corvus on the other side on the floor.

One of the individuals was a large and muscular man in a large suit of armor with a large black cape and a serious look on his squared face. His massive spikey afro of hair stood tall as he looked at Bernard with eyes full of suspicion and judgement. He folded his arms as the Rune Knights who brought Bernard, Corvus and Vulp proceeded to walk up to him and stood at his sides.

The other person was sitting on one of the thrones, signifying their status as one of the members of the royal family. She was a young woman about the same age as Bernard with wavy light green hair and a light complexion. She wore a tan dress and a red diamond headdress on her head as she looked at Bernard and the Celestial Spirits with a different look than that of the armored man next to her, one of less judging mentality.

"I am the princess of Fiore, Hisui E. Fiore." The young woman introduced herself to the group as the princess of the kingdom, Hisui. "And this is the leader of the royal army, Arcadios." Hisui said as she introduced the armored man next to her as Arcadios.

"I guess I could say it's nice to meet you? But given the circumstances of how we are meeting, this isn't the best way." Bernard said as he looked up at Hisui and Arcadios. After greeting the two, Bernard noticed Corvus nudging himself to get Bernards attention. "What's up?" Bernard whispered to Corvus.

"The princess... Is she cute or what?" Corvus said in a perverted fashion.

"N-now is not the time for jokes Corvus!" Bernard said angrily at Corvus.

"Indeed. This situation is an utmost security concern." Arcadios said as he spoke up to catch everyone's attention. "You three had managed to get into the Palace of Hades dungeon and then proceeded to assault two members of the Hungry Wolf Knights, two high ranking members of the royal army." Arcadios said as he pointed in the direction of one of the corners of the throne room.

Looking in the direction of where Arcadios was pointing, Bernard noticed Uosuke and Kamika were standing in the corner. Visually, Kamika had a displeased look on her face as she stood against the wall while Uosuke maintained his usual dopey facial expression.

"Well they started it! They attacked us and never gave us a moment to explain before we defended ourselves!" Corvus shouted.

"Yet you were in the primary dungeon for the worst criminals of the kingdom. A place they go to be executed. Defending yourself down there is no different than fighting for your life, the only difference is that you would only be down there because you are criminals in the first place." Arcadios explained as he continued to stare down Bernard.

"We are not criminals!" Corvus explained with a sense of anger in his tone.

"Then why were you down there?" Arcadios said with a raised eyebrow as he turned his attention to Corvus.

"Well... Uhhhh…" Corvus stammered as he was struggling to talk as the serious look on Arcadios' face gave him feelings of anxiety.

"May I talk and speak on his behalf?" Bernard said as he spoke up, catching everyones attention. "We were looking for something and wound up in that place." Bernard said as he looked at Hisui.

'"Looking for something?"' Hisui said with a raised eyebrow.

"What could you have been looking for that led you to winding up in the Palace of Hades?" Arcadios said with suspicion in his voice.

"Evidence..." Bernard said as he bit his lip, slightly bothered with telling the truth and unsure of the royal families ability to believe him.

'"Evidence?"' Hisui said confused. "Evidence of what?" She asked.

"It might be easier for you to understand if I start from the beginning. May I please?" Bernard said, hoping they would let him tell his story.

"You may speak." Arcadios said while crossing his arms, interested in hearing his tale.

"We came here yesterday by train, from Hargeon. Our intent was to go to the Sabertooth guild and ask for their assistance on a small problem. But the wizard we were looking for wasn't there and was on a job and wasn't going to be back for awhile so we hung out all day."

_"...Hargeon?"_ Arcadios thought as he continued to listen to Bernards story.

"We stuck around all night eating because we got depressed and when we went home, we saw... Something." Bernard said as he bit his lip once again.

"What did you see?" Hisui said with curiosity as Arcadios beckoned one of the Rune Knights to come over to him.

"Can you bring me the ledger of all the criminals expected to be executed today? One other thing... I'd like the Magic Councils report brought to me about what happened in Hargeon a few days ago as well." Arcadios whispered as the guard nodded and left the room.

"We saw a murder... In an alleyway in town that night." Bernard said as he looked at Hisui and Arcadios' eyes widened in surprise.

"You witnessed a murder? What happened specifically?" Hisui questioned.

"The day we came to town, we went to a place called "Borners Boarding House" and when we walked in, the owners wife had passed away the night before. With him, was this really creepy guy who was apparently a mortician who was examining his wives body. This same man was the man we saw murdering the owner of the building that night in the alley." Bernard said as he described the situation.

"Real gusher of a bloodbath." Corvus said as he interjected.

"Shut up!" Bernard shouted at Corvus to be quiet.

"The bird mentioned blood. What weapon did he use to commit such an act?" Arcadios said as he put his hand on his chin in a thinking pose as Corvus made an annoyed expression from the usage of the word "bird."

"His teeth..." Bernard said with some hesitancy as Arcadios, Hisui and even Kamika and Uosuke in the corner were surprised by his answer.

"You mean to say, this mortician you spoke of, bit into the boarding house owner in this alleged alley and it caused his blood to spurt out everywhere?" Arcadios repeated to get all the facts. "You said earlier you were looking for "evidence" and wound up in the Palace of Hades. Care to explain?" He continued.

"When we witnessed the murder, the coroner guy dragged Mr. Borners body into the sewer after licking up the blood that spurt everywhere." Bernard said as Arcadios begun to spoke up.

"Wait. He lapped up the blood?" Arcadios said with a sickly look as he noticed Hisui put her hand on her mouth in surprise and disgust.

"Yes, then proceeded to drag the body into the sewer below the town. The next morning, today, we decided to grab a lantern and headed below to look for the body." Bernard explained.

"We didn't find anything but it certainly smelled like the dead down there." Corvus joked as Bernard gained a throb of annoyance on his head.

"Can you get this idiot a muzzle or something!?" Bernard screamed as he looked at Corvus, who had a smug look on his face. After Bernards reaction, the two proceeded to notice a giggling noise as they turned their heads towards the princess, who was starting to chuckle.

"I'm sorry for laughing but you both are pretty funny. But if what you said is true, why didn't you immediately go to the proper authorities?" Hisui said as she proceeded to get back to the topic at hand. Following her words, the Rune Knight that Arcadios sent had returned with a set of clipboards that had papers attached to them and gave them to his commander.

"We planned on doing that. After we found the body below the town. To be honest, the killer was sort of like a vampire and if we walked up to the royal army and said "we found a vampire eating a man." Would you think they would believe us?" Bernard asked of the princess.

_"...He makes a fair point... It does sound rather farfetched if this man they claim to have killed someone with his teeth was a vampire of all things. I haven't heard of any such person like that outside of a member of the Magic Council... Logistically speaking, getting proof seems rational." _Hisui thought as Arcadios approached her after reading through the clipboards contents. Whispering in her ear, Arcadios proceeded to quietly tell the princess some of the clipboards contents. "Oh? Is that so?" Hisui asked to Arcadios as he nodded.

"I have a question for you three." Arcadios said as Bernard, Corvus and Vulp turned their heads to look at him. "Were you three involved in a ship sinking off the coast of Hargeon port several nights ago. Apparently, there was a man with two animals responsible for the sinking in the port."

After finishing his sentence, Bernard and the Celestial Spirits began to fearfully secrete a cold sweat. Their eyes widened in shock as they had hoped no one could have tied what happened with the slaver ship they destroyed back to them.

"N-n-nope! Definitely not us!" Bernard exclaimed, lying to protect himself, Corvus and Vulp.

"I've never been to Hargeon! I lived in the forest near there but never stepped into the town! I don't even know what slavery ships look like!" Corvus said as his eyes darted around as he lied.

"...I never mentioned it was a "slavery" ship..." Arcadios said as he spotted Corvus' lie with Kamika and Uosuke looking surprised at the trio. As he said that, Bernard and the Celestial Spirits turned pale as they realized they have been caught for the destruction they caused.

"Look, we can explain that!" Bernard said while sweat dripped from his head nervously.

"No need... Guards, you may remove their shackles." Arcadios said as he ordered some of the Rune Knights to remove the shackles from the group.

As Bernard rubbed his wrists to get rid of the discomfort caused by the handcuffs, Corvus and Vulp proceeded to stretch out their bodies following the removal of the magic cancelling shackles.

"Why did you cut us loose?" Bernard said with surprise and relief.

"Based on the report the Magic Council made, it would seem you have done more good than harm, Mr. O'Halloran." Hisui said with a content smile as she stood up from her throne.

_"They even have my last name down... Crap, I really hope that stuff doesn't spread about me or else I'll... Forget it, back to business." _Bernard thought as he breathed a sigh of relief. "So the Magic Council reported what happened back to you here in the castle?"

"Correct. No causalities reported outside of several injured crew members from the ships staff, who were also criminals. The owner of the ship was a well known criminal and all of the women and children who were trapped aboard were accounted for and returned back to their homes. And fact checking reports, if you and these creatures that were with you didn't get involved when you did, the people trapped aboard would have never seen their friends and families again. Plus the ship was so far out of the towns port, there was no property damage, which was also a positive." Arcadios explained as he and Hisui walked up to them.

"Would you look at that, kid?" Corvus said as he caught Bernards attention. "If we had stuck around, we would have been celebrated as heroes. Told you that you were overreacting." Corvus claimed while smirking.

"Still didn't want to be noticed." Bernard said plainly with an annoyed tone as he noticed Kamika and Uosuke in the corner began to walk up to him, still disgruntled.

"S-sorry for trying to kill you..." Kamika said embarrassed.

"S-same..." Uosuke said while scratching the back of his head.

"It-it's alright. You guys were just doing your job." Bernard said as he scratched his face, surprised by their willingness to apologize for the misunderstanding.

"Now then, while I was looking over the reports, I noticed no one fit your description for people scheduled to be executed today. So how did you wind up in the dungeon?" Arcadios questioned.

"When we searched the sewers for Mr. Borners body, we found a giant hole in the walls. We went through it and wound up down there." Bernard explained.

"A hole beneath the city that leads into an area of the castle... That's definitely not good." Arcadios said with an air of concern.

"Definitely didn't look like it was part of the sewers layout on purpose." Corvus said as he flew up and landed on Bernards shoulder.

"Do you think this hole might be tied to the killer? Do you have a name?" Arcadios said as noticed Vulp nodding to answer.

"His name is Martl-Ma... Matly Tick-Mutol? Mallor-Tortle…." Bernard struggled to say the morticians name correctly as everyone raised an eyebrow at his inability to speak.

"Oh come on, it's not that hard to speak it!" Corvus shouted while perched on Bernards shoulder. "I'll say it; his name was Mertle... Mortal Trobal… Tableseem… Uhhhh…" The crow said, beginning to screw up remembering the killers name as well as Arcadios and Hisui starting to develop troubled looks.

"Okay, you." Bernard said as he pointed at Uosuke.

"Huh? Me?" Uosuke said as he pointed at himself in response.

"Say "Mackeral Tacoflame." Just like that." Bernard requested.

'"Mackeral Tacoflame?"' Uosuke said to everyone elses confusion.

"Okay now say it like you are screwing up trying to say it." Bernard requested to Uosuke.

"Ma-Markle Toglafane?" Uosuke said as he scratched his head.

"That's it!" Bernard snapped his fingers in response as he finally remembered the killers name.

"That's a very weird name..." Kamika said with bewilderment.

"Hmmmm…" Arcadios mumbled as he thought about the name. "Guards, get me a town registry of businesses and look for the names of the owners. Specifically the name; "Markle Toglafane." He ordered as the Rune Knights left the room.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Crocus, 2:21 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

While the sun was still shining through the streets, the people of the city of Crocus were blissfully unaware of the criminal investigation that was currently happening by the royal family and the Rune Knights into the town undertaker, Markle Toglafane. Set on finding him, Chief Arcadios walked the city streets with Kamika, Uosuke and surprisingly, Bernard and his Celestial Spirit allies in tow.

"I'm surprised they are bringing us along." Corvus said as he flew next to Bernard with Vulp walking next to him.

"I think it's because they need us to identify him." Bernard said to Corvus as Arcadios turned his head.

"Precisely. Considering what had happened in Hargeon, we are willing to hear you out on this matter." Arcadios said as they continued to walk.

"I have one more question... Did you consider me a threat when you were sizing me up back in the throne room?" Bernard asked with some interest.

"I'm not at liberty to say. But I overheard from when you were detained that you had a pacemaker Lacrima in your chest and as I saw how you were reacting in the throne room, you didn't seem like someone with ill intent despite your fight with the Hungry Wolf Knights." Arcadios said with a serious tone.

"I see..." Bernard said back. As they continued to walk the streets, Bernard noticed Kamika and Uosuke make depressed expressions following Arcadios words, even noticing the wince they made the moment their commander had said "pacemaker Lacrima."

"Here we are..." Arcadios said as the group stopped in front of a small building.

Looking up, the group noticed it was a small yellow brick shop with a glass window and a door out front. A large sign hung above the door in big bold red letters spelling out: "Dead Man Mortuary."

"If this guy's a vampire like you said, he certainly spells it out with a title like that." Uosuke said as he read the sign.

"Yeah, no kidding." Bernard said as he raised an eyebrow at the signs obviously dark title.

"Mr. O'Halloran, you will come with me inside. Kamika and Uosuke, you both wait out here in case things get dicey..." Arcadios said as he put his hands on a sword he had strapped at his lapel.

"Yes sir." Kamika said in response to her captains orders as her and Uosuke waited outside.

"You guys better go inside me and wait." Bernard motioned to Corvus and Vulp.

"You sure?" Corvus said with some hesitation as Vulp made a worried face.

"In case a fight breaks out, I at least want you guys to have the element of surprise." Bernard said with a methodical look on his face.

"Well alright then." Corvus said as he and Vulp turned themselves into particles and entered Bernards Lacrima.

Opening the door, Arcadios and Bernard walked in to a service counter and waiting room of the shop. Noticing a bell on the counter, Arcadios pressed on it in an attempt to get someones attention.

Emerging from the backroom was an unsettling man in a dark coat and a wide brimmed hat and sunglasses. His large and wavy dark hair flowing down his back, he looked like he had stepped up from the inside of a grave as he entered the room.

"Hello, I am the undertaker, Markle Toglafane. How may I help you?" Toglafane said with welcoming tone and a wide grin.

_"Who wears sunglasses indoors?" _Bernard thought as he raised an eyebrow and steeling himself as he stood next to Arcadios.

"Excuse me, I am Arcadios, the commander of the royal army." Arcadios said as he revealed his title to him.

"Oh? I'm assuming you are here perhaps for a funeral prep for one of your subordinates?" Toglafane said as he raised an eyebrow with the same grin on his face as his eyes moved towards Bernards direction. "You... I remember you. We met at Borners Boarding Home, did we not?"

"Yes, I believe so... You kinda left an impression." Bernard said while he steeled himself in front of the disturbing individual.

"How is Mr. Borner? He seemed a little distressed last I saw him..." Toglafane said as he continued to smile.

"I didn't see him at all after I got my key yesterday morning. We were wondering if you might know." Bernard said as he furrowed his brows.

"Oh my, really?" Toglafane said as he dropped his smile and proceeded to make a face of worry after hearing the news.

"If you don't mind, Mr. Toglafane." Arcadios spoke up, getting Toglafanes attention. "May I take a look around?" Arcadios requested.

"Why do you feel the need to look around? Am I a suspect of some sort?" Toglafane said with raised eyebrows under his sunglasses.

"Not completely... I'm just looking to rule you out in a few minutes after I look around the area where you keep bodies." Arcadios said as looked at the door to the backroom.

"Very well then... All the bodies I have with me are completely business related." Toglafane said with a smirk as he turned around and motioned for Arcadios and Bernard to come with him.

Entering the backroom, it felt cold and lifeless as there were three tables set up in the center room with folded tarps and surgical tools laid on them. Embedded in the walls was blue colored Lacrima orbs that were giving off a clear mist from them to keep the room temperature as cold as ice. Ironically, for an unknown reason, there was a furnace in the back area of the freezing room.

"Where are your bodies?" Arcadios said to Toglafane who was standing behind Bernard and Arcadios as they entered.

"Oh. I keep them over there." Toglafane said as he pointed out a wall that had cabinets in it. "I keep the bodies cool with these freezing Lacrima and then I get to work fixing them up for funerals." He continued.

"I see..." Arcadios said as he walked over to the furnace. "What about this furnace? Why is it kept here? So close to the bodies?" He questioned.

"That's for the people who want a less ceremonial burial. I turn the dead into ashes and then I go to a pottery store and jar them for the clients." Toglafane said with his wide smile returning to his face.

As Arcadios talked with Toglafane, Bernard proceeded to walk over to the cabinets. While Arcadios distracted Toglafane, Bernard opened one of the cabinets up and looked at the body of a dead middle aged woman.

"_It's not Mr. Borner… But it might be able to prove something..."_ Bernard thought as he looked at the corpse. Putting his hands on her head, he twisted her head slightly and noticed a suspicious mark on the side of her neck. A pair of fang-like markings embedded in her throat. _"This isn't a body he picked up from the job. This is someone he got himself." _Bernard continued thinking as he quietly closed the cabinet and moved to another one.

Opening more cabinets, similar markings were placed in the necks of the multiple bodies kept in the cold storage until Bernard noticed a cabinet that was marked "Borner."

_"This should be his wife... But I know better now." _Bernard said as he opened the "Borner" marked cabinet and pulled out the dead body of Mr. Borner with a large bite mark engraved in his dead bodies neck. "Got you!" Bernard shouted as he pointed at the corpse.

"What?" Arcadios said as he looked over at Bernard as Toglafane stood still and quiet.

"This is Mr. Borner! I recognize the face and that is the exact spot he was bit yesterday night when I saw him take a bite out of him!" Bernard shouted as he pointed at Toglafane, Arcadios turning his eyes towards the calm and collected undertaker.

"Care to explain?" Arcadios said as he placed a hand on his sword at his side.

"Oh... Not really. I knew I smelled more than a grilled cheese sandwich on the floor last night." Toglafane said as he removed his sunglasses, revealing his lizard-like red eyes to Arcadios.

"What the hell?!" Arcadios said as he stepped back towards where Bernard was standing against the cabinets.

"What are you?! A vampire?!" Bernard shouted as he noticed Toglafans disturbing eyes.

'"Vampire?!" Really?! You have been reading too much fiction, young man! Try reading some real stories!" Toglafane shouted with a mad grin on his face.

"On behalf of the kingdom of Fiore and her majesty, the princess Hisui E. Fiore, I am placing you under arrest for murder!" Arcadios exclaimed as he pulled out his sword.

"I don't believe so, Mr. Arcadios. Especially now that I am powered up." Toglafane said as he took a deep breath.

_"What does that mean?" _Bernard thought as he watched him breath deeply.

"Blood Dragon..." Toglafane said as his cheeks swelled up.

_"Dragon Slayer Magic?!"_ Arcadios thought as he grabbed Bernard and pulled him down to the ground. "Stay down!" Arcadios screamed as he and Bernard prepared to duck.

"Roar!" Toglafane screamed as a large blazing torrent of blood expunged from his mouth at breakneck speeds.

As it hit the wall, a massive explosion blew up the backside of the "Dead Man Mortuary." Uosuke and Kamika looked up and saw the blazing inferno standing in front of them as the building was set on fire from the destruction as a figure rushed out from the front door.

"It's the perp!" Uosuke said as he raised his hands to use his Terrain Effect.

"You won't escape!" Kamika shouted as she pulled out a piece of yellow paper.

"Blood Dragon Iron Gauntlet!" Toglafane shouted as his arms begun to become large red steel fists.

Running at fast speeds, Toglafane raised his blood red fists into the chests of Uosuke and Kamika. Knocking the wind out of both of them, they kneeled down while clutching their injured sternums in pain as Toglafane rushed past them and reached for a manhole cover in the street as he pulled off the cover and jumped down it into the sewers below Crocus.

Sprinting out of the fiery wreckage, Arcadios and Bernard rushed out as Arcadios proceeded to rip his cape off his back and throw it on the ground to avoid getting burnt. Bernard removed his beanie from his head and smacked it with his hands in an attempt to get rid of any flames it may have. Emerging from his chest, Corvus and Vulp reformed and landed in front of him.

"Told you we should have stayed out!" Corvus screamed as he and Vulp looked over Bernard for any fire.

"Kamika, Uosuke, are you alright!? Where did he go?!" Arcadios said as he rushed over to the fallen Hungry Wolf Knights.

"He... Went down into the sewers." Kamika said as she clutched at her sternum.

"Let us go after him!" Uosuke said as he rubbed his stomach.

"You may. But you aren't going alone. You two alone aren't going to be enough to stop him." Arcadios said as he turned away towards Bernard and the Celestial Spirits.

"So he was a Dragon Slayer?" Corvus said as he asked Bernard.

"Yeah, which I don't fully know if that makes this situation better or worse..." Bernard said with concern.

Looking over his shoulder, Bernard noticed Arcadios placed the tip of his sword on his shoulder to his shock as he was worried about getting stabbed.

"Whoa! What the hell!?" Bernard said as he put his hands up in his defense as Vulp and Corvus looked surprised.

"There isn't time to waste!" Arcadios screamed as Kamika and Uosuke looked on as Arcadio pointed his sword at Bernard. "I have to return to Mercurius to protect the princess. If what you said about the hole in the sewers was true, we won't have enough people to protect her majesty and to fully track down Toglafane and defeat him with him being a Dragon Slayer! So we have no choice!"

"No choice but to what!?" Bernard shouted as he continued to be worried about getting stabbed.

"Bernard O'Halloran... You are hereby deputized as a member of the Hungry Wolf Knights!" Arcadios shouted as Kamika and Uosukes jaws dropped. "Go with Kamika and Uosuke and stop that crazy man!"

'"Huh!?"' Bernard and Corvus screamed as they weren't able to fathom what Arcadios had just said as he ran back towards the castle.

* * *

**Sometimes wolfs are hard to tolerate, especially when they take the form of a derpy fisherman with room altering magic and an attractively sadistic woman with a paper collection. With luck finally turning in favor of our heroes, Bernard and the Celestial Spirits had survived an encounter with two of the top knights in the kingdom, as well as winning the trust of the royal family and finally unmasking the truth of the heinous Blood Dragon Slayer, Markle Toglafane. With him on the loose and Bernard now deputized into the Hungry Wolf Knights, can this makeshift team of wizards and "not" wizard succeed? Find out next time!**

**(Hey, author again. THIS was a long one... And remember, I said this entire chapter was supposed to be a part of the chapter released before this one. This chapter could have broke close to 10,000 words if I didn't split this up and holy crap, did I not want that to happen. I thank everybody who has been reading and following and reviewing.)**


	8. Chapter 8

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Crocus Sewers, 2:46 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Alley-oop!" Uosuke said as he jumped down the hole into the sewers below Crocus. Following behind him was Kamika and then Bernard and his beastly allies, Corvus and Vulp.

Standing below the light coming from above ground of the manhole cover, the team of the Hungry Wolf Knights consisting of Kamika and Uosuke alongside their newly deputized member, Bernard, proceeded to look around in the pitch darkness.

"This has been an extremely strange day..." Bernard said as he stood up from his landing as Corvus flew over and perched on his shoulder with Vulp standing at his side.

"Definitely not how I expected things to go." Corvus said.

"Yeesh! It smells like a dead body down here!" Uosuke said as he covered his nose while still making the same dopey face.

"One of us already made that joke earlier today..." Corvus said as he looked at the odd Hungry Wolf Knight.

"Be that as it may, what happened doesn't change the situation. You are one of us, at least for this mission, and we need to stop that Dragon Slayer before he gets away." Kamika said as she looked at Bernard with a plain expression.

"I don't see the point in making me a member of your squad. It's not like I am a wizard who can really be of help here." Bernard said with a tone of uncertainty.

"But your pets might be of help. They listen to you so Arcadios deputized you thinking you may be of assistance as well." Kamika explained as she looked around in the direction of the sewers.

"They aren't really my pets..." Bernard said slightly embarrassed.

"Either way. I'm not sure how we can track down this guy here. We tried looking around in these sewers earlier today and Vulp couldn't find anything with all the stench floating around." Corvus said as he looked at Vulp who had his head down depressed at Corvus' comment.

"Then we need to clear the air. It's going to be harder to track down the criminal if we can't use your pets ability to smell. Uosuke!" Kamika said as she turned her attention to Uosuke who still had his hand covering his nose. "Can you use your magic to handle this?"

"No problemo!" Uosuke said as he removed his hand from his nose as it begun to glow. "Terrain Effect: Stench-Free Zone!"

After saying his spell, Uosuke's magic started to have a useful effect on the sewer systems foul stench. Dissipating from the nostrils of the group, Vulp begun to pick up on a scent that wasn't natural in the pipeline when he was down there earlier.

"You picking up something?" Bernard asked of Vulp who proceeded to nod in approval. "Great, now what can we do about the lighting?" Bernard said as the group looked in the direction Vulp was smelling.

"I can take care of that." Kamika said as she walked forward, holding out a piece of yellow paper. "The yellow paper holds the god of lightning!" Kamika said as she blew the yellow paper into the air.

Scattering and multiplying, the yellow paper begun to glow with bright light. Floating around the group, the light the paper was emitting allowed the group to see more clearly and even better than Bernards lantern from before was able to.

"Wow, wish you guys were on our side before." Bernard said as he watched the yellow paper surround the group.

"No kidding. Wish I could have done this before but with the energy I got from your little heartbeat maker, I'd run out of power sooner or later." Corvus said as he flew off of Bernard shoulder.

As Corvus said the words; "heartbeat maker," Bernard noticed the faces of Uosuke and Kamika wince into looks of shame. Raising an eyebrow, the group begun to walk in the direction of where Vulp was sniffing.

"Soooo... You guys usually work in a larger group?" Corvus asked as he flew above the Hungry Wolf Knights.

"Normally. Our boss, Scythe, took Cosmos and Neppa on a mission that Arcadios requested of us that only needed them three." Uosuke answered to Corvus.

"What are they like?" Bernard questioned after hearing their names. _"They're executioners and their bosses name is "Scythe" of all things..."_ Bernard thought with bewilderment.

"Neppa is a big drinker who can do Acid Magic with this liquid bottle he likes to keep around in his mouth. And Cosmos... I get the feeling you wouldn't get along with her very well." Kamika said as the group walked.

"...Why?" Bernard said slightly offended.

"She has a bit of an obsession with "beauty" and I have yet to see her find a guy that matches her opinion on the matter." Kamika said as she scratched her face with some minor embarrassment as she talked about her friend.

"Sorry kid, guess she isn't into dudes with heart problems. Hehe." Corvus joked to Bernards annoyance.

"Oh shut up!" Bernard said as he yelled in response to Corvus' joke. Turning his head back towards Uosuke and Kamika, he noticed them make faces filled with shame once again. "Okay, why do you guys keep making those same disgruntled looks?" Bernard questioned to the Hungry Wolf Knights.

"It's nothing..." Kamika said as the group continued to follow Vulp.

"...Vulp." Bernard asked with a look of suspicion as Vulp stopped to turn his head back. "Do you remember where the hole was? The one to the underground place?" Bernard said as Kamika and Uosuke looked at him with raised eyebrows with Vulp nodding in response. "Good, take us there first before we go further."

"What are you doing? We should be chasing the criminal down first." Kamika said as she and Uosuke stopped as she wasn't understanding what Bernard asked of Vulp.

"I got something I think we should take care of first." Bernard said as he continued to follow Vulp with Kamika and Uosuke falling behind.

"Any idea what he means by that?" Uosuke said as he looked at Corvus.

"Beats me but by this point, I trust him." Corvus said as he flew over to Bernard as Kamika and Uosuke looked at eachother with unsure looks.

After walking for awhile, the group had stopped at the large hole in the sewers that led back to the Palace of Hades as well as underneath the palace of the royal family, Mercurius. Standing in front of it, Bernard motioned for Uosuke and Vulp to come over to him.

"Vulp, give this a sniff." Bernard asked of the Celestial Spirit who complied by smelling the entryway. "Smell anything similar to the coroner?" He asked as Vulp shook his head to signify a negative response.

"Okay good, so we can rule out he went this way." Bernard said as he looked at the hole with his hands on his face in a thinking pose.

"That's good, that means he isn't heading for the castle to make a play at the princess' life." Kamika said as she stood next to the airborne Corvus.

"We probably should fill this thing up so nobody else could come this way in the future." Corvus said as he looked at the hole.

"Exactly why I wanted to come here first before we went back on the trail." Bernard said as he turned towards Uosuke. "Your magic? It can alter room layouts right? Think it could make a hole disappear?" He questioned.

"Does a tree falling in the woods crush a critter?" Uosuke said with his usual face to the confusion of everyone else.

"I... Don't know?" Bernard said confused as Uosuke walked up to the hole with his hands glowing.

As they glowed, the hole in the wall started to decrease in size. The parts of the wall around it taking shape, the makeshift entrance under the castle was no more.

"Perfect!" Uosuke exclaimed happily as he put his hands down.

"Good suggestion coming here." Kamika said with an equally satisfied expression as she looked at Bernard.

"Happy to hear... Now you guys can answer a question for me." Bernard said with his arms folded as he looked at the two. "Why do you guys keep making annoyed looks at me whenever someone mentions my pacemaker Lacrima?" Bernard said as Corvus and Vulp came next to him.

As he looked at the two knights, their faces became ones of shame once again but slightly more depressing than before with the Celestial Spirits and Bernard looking at them with confused faces.

"We lost to you in a fair fight back in the Palace of Hades... A guy with a handicap..." Kamika spoke up while still maintaining her depressed expression.

"Then the princess acknowledged you for your heroic deed and then Chief Arcadios deputized you into our group so you could help us... Not the other way around..." Uosuke said with his usually dopey smiling face now turning into a frown.

"...Your pride." Bernard said, catching the Hungry Wolf Knights attention. "You feel like you shamed your groups name and the fact that I, some random guy, managed to survive an encounter with you guys and then was asked to help. That right?" Bernard said as if he was reading the pair like a book.

"...That obvious to you?" Uosuke said as he looked at Bernard.

"Pretty much." Bernard said as he looked at them.

"Guess this makes things more awkward for our little makeshift team now, huh?" Kamika said as she rubbed one of her arms in an disgruntled fashion.

"Nah..." Bernard said in a way that seemed like he wasn't completely bothered by their opinion. "I kind of guessed this would have happened the moment Arcadios put his sword on me and deputized me." Bernard said as he scratched his head.

"I think he did it so you could officially be recognized for your contribution." Uosuke said as his faced turned back into its usual dopey look.

"I'm really hoping that doesn't mean we have to get any photos of me..." Bernard said, dreading the possibility of his name getting spread to Kamika and Uosuke who were chuckling at the humor in his reaction.

"I think it's time we get back to the matter at hand." Kamika said as she motioned for the group to get back to hunting Toglafane.

"Right. Vulp, you're up." Bernard said as he looked at Vulp who proceeded to start sniffing again as the group followed.

_"I never pegged the kid for the analytical type. He's got a good head on his shoulders."_ Corvus thought as he looked at Bernard as the group prepared to walk.

"Something up?" Bernard said as he turned around and noticed Corvus looking at him.

"N-nothing kid." Corvus said as he flew ahead to where Uosuke and Kamika were. "So you both, any luck with Dragon Slayers in the past?" He asked of the two.

"To be honest... Not really..." Uosuke said with some embarrassment in his tone.

"We had an encounter with Dragon Slayers before... But we weren't the ones who fought them and our comrades that did had very poor luck." Kamika said as she gave the crow an honest answer.

"Not what I wanted to hear..." Corvus said with a look of grievance on his face.

"I'm assuming this Toglafane guy might be a Dragon Slayer who has gained his power from a Lacrima." Kamika said in a train of thought.

"A Lacrima? I thought Dragon Slayers were very uncommon?" Bernard asked as he looked at the duo.

"They were at one point... And then Eclipse happened." Kamika said as she and the others continued to follow Vulp.

"What's that?" Bernard questioned.

"Eclipse was a big plan by the princess some time ago to solve some world ending problem using a large portal gate but she was tricked by an evil man and out came a bunch of dragons that wreaked havoc on Crocus." Uosuke explained. "It took a combined effort but all the guilds involved with the Grand Magic Games at the time helped stop the dragon menace. But something happened afterwards." He continued.

"Whatcha mean?" Corvus said with interest.

"When the dragons emerged from where they came from, an abundance of Dragon Slayer Lacrima had begun to activate all throughout Fiore. We found out from the Magic Council, who was investigating a surge in rare Lacrima being found following one of the Ten Wizards Saints having gotten his hands on eight of them, giving himself the ability to use Dragon Slayer Magic of eight types of dragons. As if they reacted by the presence of the dragons walking around above ground activated them, the crystals and gems started to get unearthed in random places." Kamika explained.

"Isn't that some irony..." Corvus said in response.

"Huh?" Bernard replied to Corvus' statement.

"Celestial Spirit wizards have decreased in this day and age because the Gold Zodiac keys are all hogged while Dragon Slayers have been increasing because there is more ways to become one now." Corvus said as he looked at Bernard.

"Huh, that is ironic. Let's hope this guy hasn't had his ability to use Dragon Slayer magic too long..." Bernard said with a tone of concern as the group continued following Vulp.

After awhile walking, Vulp had stopped underneath a manhole cover as he looked up and used his tail as a pointer to signify where Toglafane had escaped to with the group stopping near him.

"Guess we found where he went. Terrain Effect: Gravity Zone!" Uosuke said as he looked up, putting his glowing hand in the air and lifting the manhole out of the way and revealing the suns light.

Climbing up and out of the hole, the group had looked around to a peculiar sight of a wrecked series of buildings and debris scattered everywhere.

"What's this place? A garbage dump?" Corvus said as he looked around at the crushed rocks and wood all over the place.

"You are partially correct." Kamika said as she looked in one specific direction. "Remember when we mentioned the Eclipse incident? This is where the kingdom dumped some of the rubble from the dragon attack. Most of this is garbage and damaged buildings that the clean up crew, who helped fix up everything, placed here before new buildings were put in their place." She continued as Bernard walked up to her.

"That doesn't look completely trashed." Bernard said as he looked at what Kamika was looking at with Corvus perching on his shoulder.

With the others walking up to them, Kamika and Bernard looked up and saw one large and partially decrepit building still standing amongst the trash and debris. With its pillars looking damaged and its bricks decaying, the building said "Crocus Library" in big bold letters hanging over an entrance into the structure.

"The old town library." Uosuke said as he looked up at the library.

"I'm guessing there's another one back in town to replace this one?" Bernard questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Yup." Kamika said plainly.

"Vulp? Anything?" Bernard said as he turned his head back to look at Vulp who nodded his head in response. "He's in there." Bernard said as he steeled himself.

"Get ready." Uosuke said as he walked up to the front door with the other members of the group following behind him.

Opening up the doors to the library, the group proceeded to slowly tip-toe into the building in an effort to stay quiet.

Inside, the library appeared bleak and desolate. Cobwebs and rubble spread out amongst the ground, the library looked as if it was appearing on its last legs. The stair case close to the entrance led up to a second floor that was missing some parts of the walkway but despite the damaged appearance, the library still had plenty of old hard cover books on its many shelves.

"Seems a bit of a waste to leave all these books here." Bernard said as he walked over to a shelf and picked up a book off the rack.

"Most of these were replaced at the new town library so it doesn't completely matter." Kamika explained as she looked around.

"I think I'll use my Terrain Effect Magic and alter the layout so it's- Gah!" Uosuke said until he was cut off by the feeling of something pecking him in the head. Turning around, he saw Corvus using his beak to stab his cranium. "What the hell was that for!?" Uosuke shouted while making the same face.

"We shouldn't change this places room layout." Corvus said to the confused Uosuke.

"Why not? This place is falling apart." Uosuke surmised.

"Because if we change the way the place looks, it's going to startle the guy and he's gonna run out of here because he knows we are close." Bernard explained.

"Oh... Well that makes sense." Uosuke said as he scratched the back of his head in realization.

"Are you sure this guy is a knight?" Corvus asked while looking at Kamika who gave a tired expression.

"He's better equipped for executions, not stealth missions... That's more my and Cosmos expertise." Kamika said with some minor annoyance at Uosuke attempting to jump the gun.

"Best stick to what you are good at, Uosuke." Bernard said to Uosuke who nodded in agreeance. "I'm too used to seeing people trying to do things that they can't do without a proper idea." Bernard said to himself, prompting the group to look at him.

"What do you mean? You worked with people doing things before that you had to assist with?" Uosuke asked with some interest.

"Er!? Well... I worked at a- uh, thrift shop before coming here so I'm used to people acting like dummies is all I mean! Hahaha!" Bernard said with a look of nervousness and a fake laugh that caused Corvus and Vulp to raise their eyebrows in confusion. _"Crap, I am saying too much..."_ Bernard thought as he continued to fake laugh.

As Bernards fake laugh was echoing, underneath the library, a certain murderous Dragon Slayer was sitting in a wooden chair in the basement storage area. Looking up and hearing the sound coming from the foyer, Toglafane had a smirk on his face as he picked up a severed male hand on a table. Biting into the wrist, blood started to drip out of the hand as the blood started to be sucked up into Toglafane's mouth.

"Ahhh…" Toglafane exclaimed with ecstasy in his voice as he turned his eyes towards something standing in a corner.

Standing in the shadows was a large creature with a pair of glowing green eyes that was staring at Toglafane enjoying his cannibalistic meal.

"It looks like our guests have arrived to greet us in our humble abode." Toglafane said to the silent green eyed creature. "Now that I am done eating, let's greet them." Toglafane said as he held up his arms with blood starting to drip out of them as he looked up at the ceiling of the basement.

Meanwhile, back in the foyer, Bernard and his allies were talking to one another about their next steps.

"Okay, so we should split up I am guessing?" Kamika said to everybody.

"Hmmmm… I don't know if we should honestly." Bernard said in minor opposition as Vulp nodded in agreement.

"We could cover more ground that way though." Kamika explained.

"Yeah but the guy we are fighting is a blood sucker and a Dragon Slayer. If one of us is alone with him, our goose is cooked." Bernard replied back.

"You're a goose?" Uosuke said as he turned towards Corvus who was getting angry with the Hungry Wolf Knight for his constant hungry stares.

"I'm a crow! You stupid idiot!" Corvus shouted angrily.

"Hey no shouting! If he finds us-" Bernard said until he noticed a noise coming from below them until everyone heard a voice coming from below

"What a sharp assumption!" Said a familiar sounding voice as the ground below started to crack.

As a massive hole with a large appendage emerging from it broke through the ground, the makeshift Hungry Wolf Knights team scattered in different directions to avoid being hit or falling through.

After moving out of the way, the group proceeded to ready themselves as Kamika took out a piece of red paper, Uosuke's hands begun to glow and Bernard stood at the ready with Corvus sparking up and Vulp's fur beginning to take shape.

"I welcome you to my little hideaway..." Toglafane said as he emerged from the hole with his arms covered in blood, standing on the edge. "Blood Dragon Talons!" He shouted as the blood around his forearms started to take shape in the form of a large curved blade on each arm.

"In the name of the kingdom of Fiore, you are under arrest!" Kamika shouted as she readied her paper.

"You're boss earlier already told me that but he didn't do much of a good job stopping me from getting my fill. Perhaps you all would like to have a meal with me? Unfortunately, my table manners are quite audacious." Toglafane said as he wiped his face with his bloody arms, the red liquid now covering every inch of his face below the nose.

"Haven't you killed enough people!?" Bernard shouted in anger as he looked at Toglafane's smug look. "Besides, you're outnumbered! It's five on one!" Bernard exclaimed loudly.

"Don't you mean; Five on two?" Toglafane said as the giant appendage from before proceeded to reach out and pull itself out of the hole behind him.

"What the heck is that thing?!" Uosuke shouted as the group looked up at a giant creature that was standing behind Toglafane.

It was large and scary to look at, a giant monstrous creature stood before the group on Toglafane's side. With two glowing green eyes, it stood around twenty feet tall with bone-like spikes jutting out of its back and a large mouth of spikey shark-like teeth near its slightly three pronged head. What was most peculiar, however, was its body appeared to be predominately made of a liquid substance that was a combination of blue, red and black colors. Its massive three fingered hands appeared able to crush anything with a single squeeze should anything be caught in them and it's wide and long legs made it appear even more threatening for its disturbingly human-like shape.

"What the hell is that?!" Corvus shouted as he looked at the giant liquid monster.

"Just a little creature I managed to tame thanks to a book I found buried here." Toglafane said with a smile as he reached into his black coat and dropped a book on the floor. "He likes to listen to commands and he loves to crush things." Toglafane said as he begun to walk towards the exit to the library.

"Where do you think you are going?!" Kamika shouted as her and Uosuke tried to jump the Blood Dragon Slayer as the large liquid creature smacked them out of the air with one of his large hands, knocking them both into a pillar of the condemned library.

"Take care of them for me. I'm feeling hungry again." Toglafane said as he casually walked out the place.

"Crap! He is getting away!" Bernard exclaimed as he tried to chase after him.

As he rushed towards the door, the large liquid creature put one of its hands down to block the exit, prevented Bernard from escaping as Vulp rushed in front of Bernard to protect him with a growl.

"Don't think we got much luck here kid!" Corvus said as he flew over to join the duo as the liquid monster stood in front of the exit.

"Terrain Effect! Gravity Zone!" Uosuke shouted as Bernard turned to notice him get back up.

Suddenly, pressure in the area around the creature begun to increase as it took a knee from gravity pushing it downward and pressing against its massive frame. Soon, the gravity had caused the monster to melt into a water-like base form in visually similarity to a large puddle.

"We got to go after him!" Kamika shouted as she stood up, now holding a piece of light blue paper. "The blue paper is the god of divine winds!"

Throwing the paper into the air, the blue paper started to take shape and folded into a boat with an air glider-like sail. Jumping onto it, Kamika and Uosuke held on as wind pushed the blue paper sailboat up and over the creatures head. Looking down as they flew by, Uosuke exchanged glances with Bernard.

"We are going on ahead to catch him before he kills somebody! You take care of this thing!" Uosuke shouted as the ship broke through the decaying wall over the exit to the condemned library.

"What?!" Bernard shouted as the two Hungry Wolf Knights went on to try and capture Toglafane.

"They can't be serious!?" Corvus said as he was dumbfounded by the two knights leaving them behind to contend with the giant liquid beast who was starting to reform its large shape.

As it begun to take shape, Bernard, Corvus and Vulp proceeded to start stepping back to get some distance from it. As they stepped back, Bernard stepped on the book that Toglafane dropped earlier. Picking it up and holding it in his hands, the goliath creature stared down the trio as its head reformed and roared a massive beastly growl in their direction.

"This trip of ours keeps getting worse and worse…" Corvus said as Vulp growled back at the big monster, preparing to fight it as Bernard looked at the book Toglafane had dropped and proceeded to look at the cover.

_'"Formosa: a Product of Lummy"… Who or what the hell is Lummy?" _Bernard thought as he looked at the book before turning his attention back towards the monster.

* * *

**Some problems are best taken care of with just talking it out, others are best taken care of with violence and teamwork. Unfortunately, full teamwork doesn't work with you are just a deputy and the teammates you are saddled with are leaving you behind to fight a giant liquid golem monster thing. Will Kamika and Uosuke be able to handle Markle Toglafane by themselves? And will Bernard and his Celestial Spirit friends take on this mysterious unknown monster that came from a book from someone named "Lummy?" Find out next time on Menagerie!**

**(Author here: Yes, its THAT Lummy and to the person who reviewed every chapter so far. Thank you for doing that, I appreciate it.)**


	9. Chapter 9

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Crocus, 3:57 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

The streets ran rampant as the townsfolk of the city of Crocus ran in fear. Buildings were on fire, blood spread all over the ground and the person responsible was enjoying the taste of a leg that was amongst some of the causalities.

"Feels so good to have a picnic in the sunlight." Toglafane said as he sucked blood from the leg he had in his hands. As it dripped from his face, he casually walked down the street amongst the destruction. "Blood Dragon Talons!" Toglafane shouted as a set of large curved blades appeared on his forearms.

With his red bloody blades, Toglafane swung and sliced into street lights and buildings. As his blades carved into various structures, the sound of loud footsteps caught Toglafanes attention as he noticed the arrival of a squad of Rune Knights.

"Gentleman, care to join my meal?" Toglafane jokingly said as blood dripped from his mouth, causing some of the knights to wince in fear.

"Y-you are under arrest!" One of the Rune Knights said scared as the group held their spears and shields while shivering.

"This is the best the kingdom can send!? First, the fisherman and the weird kimono lady and the one douche with the animals and now some chainmail dorks who look ready to piss themselves?! This is rich!" Toglafane laughed as he looked at the Rune Knights.

"S-shut up!" Another Rune Knight said as his legs shook.

"Oh you won't have to worry about me talking for very long, I can shout for you instead!" Toglafane said as he opened his mouth wide and inhaled the air. "Blood Dragon Roar!" He exclaimed as a large torrent beam of blood shot from his mouth.

Impacting on the ground, the resulting explosion caused the Rune Knights to go flying in different directions and losing consciousness as they slammed into the streets and buildings.

"Bahahaha!" Toglafane laughed maniacally as he saw the knights were laid out. "This has been a great day!" Toglafane said as he shivered in delight as he walked over to one of the unconscious kingdom guards. "Blood always tasted better when the source is still alive to me. Reason I went after living relatives to some of the stiffs I was tasked with taking care of." Toglafane said to himself and to the knocked out soldier.

Bending down, Toglafane opened his mouth to reveal his sharp teeth and prepared to bite into one of the Rune Knights. As he was close to the neck, a smell entered his nostrils that caught his attention as he backed away slightly from the body. Looking behind him, he noticed a large wave of red burning paper was hurling his way as he jumped out of the way.

"The red paper is the god of fire." Kamika said as she appeared with Uosuke standing next to her, standing several feet apart from where Toglafane landed.

"You fools are still alive? Left your friend with the pets to be crushed?" Toglafane said as he looked at the Hungry Wolf Knights with an amused look on his face.

"We came to stop you from wrecking the kingdom, Dragon Slayer." Uosuke said as his hands glowed. "Terrain Effect: Spike Zone!" He exclaimed.

As Uosuke said his spell, a large hole in the ground appeared under Toglafane that was filled with various spikes. However, before falling into the hole, a large set of red bat-like wings emerged from his back and prevented him falling in as he hovered above the hole.

"What?!" Kamika exclaimed in surprise. "You can fly too!?" Kamika said as she watched Toglafane flying with his red wings.

"I thought of making these wings after I heard the beanie-sporting guy say I was like a vampire. Snazzy, don't you think?" Toglafane said as he flew over to them with his forearm blades.

Swinging at them, Kamika and Uosuke jumped around in an attempt to avoid getting cut in half by Toglafanes bladed arms.

"Terrain Effect: Gravity Zone!" Uosuke said as he put his hands up.

Suddenly, gravity pushed against Toglafanes front as he felt a push of air knocking him backwards as it made distance between the Hungry Wolf Knights and the Blood Dragon Slayer.

"He's tough than he looks..." Kamika said with a tired expression.

"No kidding... But he doesn't look tired at all." Uosuke said with a similarly tired expression.

"That all?" Toglafane said with a confident look in his eyes.

"We're just getting started..." Kamika said with agitation in her voice. _"We need all the help we can get..." _Kamika thought as she held out a yellow piece of paper.

_"If the whole squad were here, this criminal would be dead by now. Wonder how the other guy is doing?" _Uosuke thought as he put his glowing hands up.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Condemned Library, 4:02 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Out of the way!" Bernard shouted as the large liquid monster had slammed its hand down on the ground.

Narrowly avoiding the slam, Bernard and Vulp jumped out of the way as the monster broke a hole through the floor. As the monster pulled itself up, a bolt of red and white lightning struck it in the side of the head but with no real damage to be seen against it as it turned its head to see Corvus with sparks around him.

"Crap! I thought my lightning magic would work!" Corvus shouted as he flew away from the creature.

As it turned its head to look at Corvus, the creature swung its arm once again in an attempt to strike the crow Celestial Spirit. Its large three pronged hand slamming against the second floor, a section of the upper area had fallen down from the rampaging giants swing.

"Corvus! You alright!?" Bernard shouted as he couldn't tell if the creature had hit the crow.

"Yeah! I'm fine!" Corvus exclaimed as he flew behind the liquid beast. "I got out of the way in time!" He continued as he flew over to Bernard and Vulp.

"Vulp! Try your bladed tail!" Bernard said as Vulp turned his tail into a large broadsword-like blade.

Swinging his body around, Vulp swung his sword tail at the giant monsters torso as it started to turn around. Slicing into the chest area, the blade had cut through the fluid body of the creature and not made any significant damage to it as the liquid reformed from the cuts.

"Seriously?! Nothing either!?" Bernard exclaimed as he saw Vulp's blade failed to make a real mark in the liquid beast prompting Corvus and Vulp to drop their jaws in shock. "Guys..." Bernard said getting the Celestial Spirits attention.

"Yeah?" Corvus said bewildered at the lack of luck fighting the monster.

"Ultimate plan?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"Ultimate plan..." Corvus said nodding as Vulp followed suit with a nod.

"Run!" Bernard shouted as the trio ran towards the hole in the library foyer where the monster and Toglafane emerged originally. As they jumped in, the creature growled as it slowly moved toward the direction where they ran.

Landing in the basement storage area, Bernard ran into the corner as he pulled Corvus and Vulp close to him in an attempt to remain quiet as they heard the creature stomp towards the hole.

"Crap! Crap! Crap! I can't believe those jerkwards left us to fight this thing!" Corvus said complaining as they hung back against the corner in the basement. Turning his head, Corvus noticed Bernard was looking at something. "What's that? That the book the creepy guy had?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to find something in here that can save our skins..." Bernard said as he skimmed through the pages.

"I don't think you have time to read kid. We have several feet of liquid freak standing over us." Corvus said as he looked up at the ceiling as the loud stomping continued. "At least, it's a slow thing..." Corvus said as sweat dripped off his beak.

As Bernard tried to rush read and Corvus was looking around, Vulp had looked up at a table in the basement. Moving over to it, he hopped up onto the top and found a pair of glasses with a minor gem-like indent in the frames. Grabbing them with his mouth, Vulp walked back over to Bernard and Corvus.

"Whatcha got?" Corvus said as he looked at something in Vulps mouth.

"Wait... Vulp! Is that what I think it is!?" Bernard said with some hopefulness in his voice as he grabbed the glasses out of the Celestial Spirits mouth.

"Glasses? How does that help us?" Corvus said confused.

"These are "Wind-Reader Glasses." They're designed so that you could read a book at mind-boggling speeds! This must be how Tacoflame was able to read this thing and figured out how to control that thing." Bernard said as he put on the glasses. "With these and if I read this quickly, I can figure out its weakness."

As he opened the book, a magic circle appeared over the pages as Bernard started to flip though the book. While he read, Corvus and Vulp noticed the creature was starting to reach into the hole the trio ran into and was trying to grab them with its hand.

"Ummm! Kid! You might want to hurry up the reading!" Corvus said as he flew back slightly, hoping to avoid contact as Vulp leaped around in an attempt to do the same.

_"... Water... Etherious... Custom made prototype? Laser beam attack? La-Lacrima?! Wait, what the?" _Bernard thought as he continued to read the book, ignoring the fact the monsters hand was getting closer to where he was.

"Kid!?" Corvus said in an attempt to get the kids attention.

"Almost... Almost!... Done! I know what to- Ahhh!" Bernard said before he was cut off by the large three pronged hand of the monster wrapping around him and pulling him out of the hole.

"Oh no!" Corvus said as he grabbed Vulp with his talons and flew out of the hole in an attempt to stop the creature from killing Bernard. "Vulp, get your blades out and-Huh?" Corvus said before he noticed Bernard in the monsters hand, holding his left hand up towards the spirits to stop them from getting closer.

"Stop! I know what to do! Guh!" Bernard exclaimed as he was stuck in the creatures hand. As it slowly began to crush him between its fingers, Bernard exclaimed a sound of pain as he felt the crushing feeling around his ribs.

_"Really hope this works!" _Bernard thought as he took his free hand and forced it through one of the fingers wrapped around him.

As his hand was in the liquid form of the monster, Bernard started to let loose a portion of the energy he had stored up in his body for his pacemaker Lacrima. Mixing into the monsters fluid-like body, the creature started to act differently as Bernards energy was spreading through the creature.

Looking blankly into space with its eyes, the monsters grip started to loosen as Bernard slipped out of its grasp and begun to plummet to the ground. Before he hit the ground, Vulp launched a series of blue hairy tendrils towards where he was falling and grabbed him.

"Th-thanks..." Bernard said with a tired look on his face and one of his hands on his heart.

"Kid, you alright!?" Corvus said as he flew over to Bernard as Vulp let him down and he laid on the ground.

"Yeah... Okay, not really..." Bernard said while continuing to clutch at his pacemaker Lacrima as he felt pain in his chest.

Looking upward, Corvus and Vulp looked at the creature and noticed it wasn't moving or rampaging like before. Standing aimlessly and blankly, the black, blue and red liquid monster wasn't doing anything, as if there wasn't a thought moving through its head. Flapping his wings, Corvus flew up to the monsters face.

"Hello? Uhhhhh… Earthland to freaky water thing?" Corvus said as he flew up to the large monstrosities face and looked into its glowing green eyes. "What did you do to it?" Corvus said as he flew back towards Bernard.

"I... Followed the instructions..." Bernard said between breaths as he held up the book.

"Instructions?" Corvus said as he flew over to the still downed Bernard.

"This book... Was quite the read..." Bernard said as he started to sit up.

"Easy there kid." Corvus said with some concern and Vulp rubbed his face against Bernards, happy to see that he was alright.

"I'm okay guys... But boy, do I have some stuff to tell you guys." Bernard said as he pet the two Celestial Spirits before cracking open the book. "I was wondering what the title meant; "Formosa: a Product of Lummy. That's what this thing is called."

"What? Formosa?" Corvus said as he looked up at the still monster.

"Yeah, that's its name." Bernard said as he started to stand up.

"Okay? I guess that nice to know it has a title but what did you do it make it stop?" Corvus asked as he flew up and perched on Bernards shoulder.

"Take a look at this..." Bernard said as he showed the contents of the book to Corvus whose eyes widened in surprise.

"What the heck!?" Corvus exclaimed as he looked at the books pages.

The handwriting was atrocious and all over the place. As if a cat had sat in an inkwell and dragged its butt over the pages, the only words that could best describe the contents of the book would be "childish" and "painful to read." There were even little scribbles and poorly done drawings mixed in and overlapping with the words.

"If Vulp hadn't found those Wind-Reader Glasses, I would have never been able to read this. It's like a dumb child with a bucket over its head tried to write this thing." Bernard said with major criticism as he looked at the book.

'"Product of Lummy…" Was this Lummy person the writer? Because if so, they need to go back to school and learn how to write." Corvus said bewildered as he struggled to look at the contents of the book.

"This "Lummy" is a she and she was also not human... One of the pages mentioned her referring to herself as an "Etherious." Any idea what that is?" Bernard said as he looked to Corvus for an answer.

"An Etherious? Oh wait! I know what those are. That's a demon!" Corvus said as he remembered.

"A demon? Like a "horns on their head with wings" demon?" Bernard said with some surprise.

"No, Etherious are different, these types of demons were made by Zeref, the legendary evil wizard. I've heard stories about them back in the Celestial Spirit world." Corvus explained. "There was an entire Dark Guild comprised of them at one point from what I heard floating around the rumor mill." He continued.

"Well this Lummy person must have been a part of that Dark Guild you mentioned because I noticed her mention something about "experiments for an army" in the book so she was up to no good and made this thing... Formosa." Bernard said as he looked up at the giant liquid golem, now named Formosa.

"So wait... This thing was made in a lab or something?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow as he and Vulp looked up at Formosa.

"I think? I'm not entirely sure but I found something interesting on the last page." Bernard said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out something. In his hand was a small little glass vial that had a small drop of blue, black and red liquid still inside it. "I think Formosa was in this before it got out and got like this."

"Are you serious?! This small vial held this big thing?!" Corvus exclaimed in shock as he and Vulp stared at the vial.

"I have no idea how the hell it fit in here, impressive be that is." Bernard said as he put the vial back in his pocket. "But I ain't done. Apparently in this random drivel, she put a bunch of something called "Demon Particles" into this thing and it turned out like this." Bernard said as he pointed at Formosa who was still not moving.

"Wait... "Demon Particles?"' Corvus said in surprise. "That would mean..." He continued as he came to a realization.

"Yep... This thing is a "prototype" Etherious demon... Now watch this." Bernard said as he asked the Celestial Spirits to watch him. "Formosa! Raise your right arm!"

As Bernard said a directive towards the hulking liquid monster, Formosa had begun to lift its right arm into the air until its three pronged hand had smacked against ceiling. Breaking through, a portion of the roof of the library had begun to fall down and land on Formosa's liquid head with no reaction from the giant as the rubble came down.

"Okay... I am very curious now… Why is this thing listening to you and what did you mean by "prototype?"' Corvus said as he flew next to Bernard and looked at him.

"Both those answers are in this book." Bernard said as he sat down and pulled open the book as Vulp and Corvus huddled around him to look at the contents. "So this thing is a custom made Etherious by this Lummy person in an attempt to copy Zeref's demon-making formula and make more of her kind. So she took, whatever this thing originally was, and made it into a demon in the same vein as Zeref but she screwed up in one aspect."

"How so?" Corvus asked.

"This thing has no brain." Bernard explained. "It can't think for itself, it's like a mindless child when you get down to how it functions unless someone barks something at it to make it do anything." He continued as he flipped through the pages. "It's a prototype because this was her first attempt at making one of these but then she scrapped the whole thing when it couldn't work on its own and just buried this journal with it here, away from everyone."

"So... She made a dumbass?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow to Bernard and Vulp looking at him for his odd comment.

"Not completely, basically, it's almost a machine. Needs someone to tell it what to do in order to operate and that's where me and creepy coroner guy have something in common." Bernard said as he got back up.

"What?" Corvus questioned as Bernard looked at the crow Celestial Spirit and put his right hands index finger on his bodies pacemaker Lacrima. "Your magic ticker? He has one too?" Corvus said confused.

"No! The Dragon Slayer Lacrima in his body! He has a Lacrima in him too!" Bernard said as he shouted in annoyance.

"Oh right... Wait, that means the paper girls theory of him getting his Dragon Slayer Magic from a Lacrima was correct but how does having a Lacrima make this thing listen to you?" Corvus said unsure.

"Formosa feeds itself on Lacrima, this was another reason Lummy threw it out. It needs Lacrima to operate and it absorbs energy from a Lacrima in the possession of someone who can expunge the energy. Tacoflame has energy from all the blood he has absorbed from other people so that explains how he was able to feed this thing energy to move it." Bernard said as he threw the book away as Corvus perched himself on Bernards shoulder again as Vulp walked over to Formosas foot and begun to sniff it.

"So this thing works the same way as me and Vulp do then. We get energy from the gem above your heart and we get the ability to fight and- okay that's weird." Corvus said as he looked in a random direction with a realization in his head.

"What's up?" Bernard said as he looked at Corvus as Vulp walked back over.

"I have something in common with a demon of all things. I am a Celestial Spirit and he is an Etherious and we both suck off energy from some guy with a problematic heart just to be useful... I feel weird..." Corvus said as he begun to feel bad about being similar to a demon.

"Easy for you to say. You aren't the one losing their heart just to help you out." Bernard said plainly.

"Oh yeah... Sorry..." Corvus said with a bit of sadness in his voice.

"Look, it's alright but now we have to get back to the matter at hand." Bernard said as he looked at Vulp. "We need to go stop that guy." Bernard exclaimed with resolve.

"Totally! Let's-huh?" Corvus said until he was cut off by the sight of Formosa moving once again.

Turning their heads, the trio noticed Formosa had reached its hand down and put it around Bernard once again. Lifting him up over its head, Formosa had placed Bernard on the top of its liquid body where it was solid, much to the groups surprise. As Bernard stood on its head, Formosas body begun to change and melt downward into a puddle-like form with two of its boney spikes sticking out of the puddle.

"Okay? That was different." Corvus said unsure of what Formosa was doing with Bernard.

"You think it's trying to help?" Bernard said as he held onto the bone spikes sticking out of Formosas puddle-like shape

"Don't know? Maybe ask it if it could take us to where the bloodsucker is?" Corvus said as he flew over to Bernard with Vulp walking over as well, standing on Formosas liquid form.

"Formosa." Bernard said as he looked down at the puddle with Formosas green glowing eyes reforming amidst the fluid. "Can you take us to where your previous owner might be?" Bernard asked of the creature.

As the trio continued to stand on Formosa, energy from Bernards heart Lacrima continued to seep out of him and into the large Etherious. With his energy being drained, Bernard held on tightly to Formosas spikes to keep his composure when suddenly, Formosa growled and had moved at breakneck speeds.

'"Whoa!"' Bernard and Corvus screamed as they stood on the fast moving liquid demon that had glided on the floor and smashing through the entrance to the decaying library.

"Holy crap! He's fast!" Corvus said as he and Vulp held onto Bernards legs.

"Can you slow it down a bit!?" Bernard shouted at Formosa as the creature moved quickly.

Hearing Bernards command, Formosa had begun to slow down to help the trio of passengers on its head be less flustered.

"Okay... This is better..." Bernard said tiredly as he continued to ride.

"Yeah... Agreed..." Corvus said in agreeance. "This speed should be fine. The knight guys should be handling the vampire dragon guy so maybe we shouldn't have to worry about much when we get there." Corvus said hopeful.

"Yeah, same." Bernard said with similar hopefulness. _"We're going to need a plan..."_ Bernard thought as he held on to Formosa.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Crocus, 4:19 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Paper Blizzard: White Dance!" Kamika shouted as she held up a piece of white paper. Throwing it, the paper spread and multiplied with a torrent of ice cold snow spreading with it, aiming for Toglafane who was floating in the air with his bloody wings.

As the icy wave hurled towards the airborne coroner, Toglafane flew to the side as the icy paper failed to hit him. Turning his attention away from Kamika who looked in aggravation at Toglafanes smirking face, he looked at Uosuke who was looking with sweat on his brow.

_"I'm no good in a fight like this in an open space. My magic is better for a closed area..." _Uosuke said as he looked at Toglafane in the air.

"You guys should go back to whatever hole you came out of. Stick to trying to kill people when they can't defend themselves!" Toglafane maniacally said as large whip-like tendrils made of blood came out of his fingertips.

Whipping his hands around in a spinning motion, the bloody tendrils cracked against the faces of Kamika and Uosuke and left cuts and welts on their cheeks. The damage spreading against their faces made the duo of the Hungry Wolf Knights each take a knee as they clutched their faces in pain.

"Grh! Damn..." Kamika said as she rubbed her cheek.

"He just has too much power!" Uosuke exclaimed as he mimicked Kamika.

"Thank you for the compliment!" Toglafane mockingly exclaimed as he moved his bloody whips behind the pair as it latched onto their ankles.

As it caught their ankles, Toglafane moved the ends of his blood whips into the air and pulled Kamika and Uosuke upside down above the ground. Holding them above the air, Toglafane slowly walked over to the upside down and tired knights as they looked at him approach with eyes full of nervousness.

"Care to make me a happy man?" Toglafane said as he opened his mouth, showing his fangs to the two whose faces became blue with fear at the sight. "Let's have a bite!" He shouted as he prepared to bite into one of the two.

"You should go on a diet!" Said an unfamiliar voice to Toglafane as he closed his mouth, turning his head as he looked up into the air to a surprising sight.

In the air above Toglafane and his upside down captives, Corvus looked down at him with a look of anger as he sparked up a bunch of red and white lightning surrounding his body. Raising his wings, a large bolt of lightning came down from the sky over Toglafane's head as Toglafane dropped Kamika and Uosuke to get out of the way of the bolt.

"What the hell are you?!" Toglafane said with surprise as he looked up at the crow Celestial Spirit.

"Oh? Oh yeah, we haven't met. I'm Corvus and those two oddballs are some friends of a friend of mine." Corvus said as he looked at the two Hungry Wolf Knights who were trying to stand up with disgruntled looks on their faces, agitated by the unfriendly comments of Corvus.

"Oh come on Corvus!" Said another disembodied voice that caught Toglafanes attention as he turned around away from Corvus and saw the face of someone he didn't expect to find alive. "I don't dislike them despite them trying to kill me earlier today."

Bernard walked up to the scene with a confident look on his face as Vulp walked alongside him with a look on his face, ready to fight. Flying past Toglafane, Corvus proceeded to get close to Bernard and land on his shoulder.

"I-Impossible..." Toglafane said in shock as he looked at Bernard smirking at him.

"I do agree though with the crow, you have been eating way too much today. Have you considered maybe consuming less iron?" Bernard jokingly said as he looked at Toglafane.

"How did you defeat my demon?!" Toglafane said with an angry look.

"I didn't." Bernard said as he pointed downward. Bubbling underneath the cracks in the ground, blue, red and black liquid started to spill out from the earth until it started to take shape and grow to a large size. Emerging behind Bernard, Corvus and Vulp, Formosa had screamed a loud growl.

_"That thing is here now?!" _Kamika thought as she looked at the giant liquid beast.

"Is he... Controlling that thing!?" Uosuke exclaimed in surprise.

"Formosa! What are you doing?! You are under my control!" Toglafane shouted as he looked at Formosa.

"Not anymore." Corvus said with a smirk on Bernards shoulder.

"Yeah, I kind of read that little instruction manual you left behind back there. Quite the read if it wasn't for the sloppy handwriting." Bernard said as Vulp stared down Toglafane with a look of determination.

"That's not possible! I'm the only one here with-Blrugh!" Toglafane said until he felt something hit him in the chest.

Looking down, Toglafane noticed a large blue hairy fist knock him back a few feet. Clutching his chest following the strike, Toglafane felt a large amount of pain enter him as he looked back at Vulp whose tail took the form of a fist before turning back to normal. As Vulp eyed Toglafane, Bernard went over to Kamika and Uosuke.

"You guys alright?" Bernard asked of their condition. _"Good, caught him off guard with Formosa. Now I got to think of what to do next..."_ Bernard thought as he looked over his comrades.

"Yeah but we haven't had much luck with getting a scratch on him." Kamika said as she looked at the now angry coroner.

"He knows a lot of techniques..." Uosuke said to Bernard.

"Yeah... But I might have a plan." Bernard said determined.

"What is it?" Kamika said as she turned her attention back towards Bernard.

"You damn beast! Blood Dragon Iron Gauntlets!" Toglafane shouted as the blood around his arms took the form of a pair of large gauntlets and then rushed towards Vulp with Formosa standing behind him.

"I think you mean "beasts!"' Corvus shouted as he sparked up once again over Toglafane.

Channeling his lightning, Corvus fired a small electric energy shot towards the back of Toglafane as he looked back to see the incoming attack. Pivoting to the side to avoid the incoming attack, Toglafane cocked back one of his blood gauntlet covered hands in an attempt to strike Vulp. As the strike was coming towards Vulp, the fox Celestial Spirit morphed the fur around his body into a ball-like form as a shield to block the attack, the bloody fist knocking the fox Celestial Spirit back into the wet body of Formosa before landing on the ground with minor injury.

"Crap!" Corvus exclaimed as he flew over in an attempt to tackle Toglafane after he struck Vulp.

"Damn bird!" Toglafane screamed as he turned his head back towards the incoming crow adversary. "Blood Dragon Roar!" He exclaimed as another torrent of blood shot from his mouth towards Corvus.

"Blah!" Corvus said as the bloody attack crashed into him and caused him to fall onto the ground, soaked in thick red blood. "Yuck! First saliva from the owl guy and now blood from this knob! Can people stop spitting on me!?" Corvus complained angrily as he tried to wipe the blood off his body.

Turning his attention back towards his once obedient monster, Toglafane noticed Formosa had lifted its arm high into the air and proceeded to bring it down in an attempt to strike him with its large hand.

"Blood Dragon Wings!" Toglafane shouted as his red wings emerged from his back once again and used them to narrowly dodge being struck by Formosa. _"Damn it! I can't afford to get hit... I am wasting up all my magic with all the spells I keep using..." _Toglafane thought as he hovered in the air over Formosa and the Celestial Spirits.

_"His dodging is becoming more wild... He must be running low on power... Wait, has he been mostly dodging this whole time? No blocking despite his magic being so powerful? Then that might mean..." _Bernard thought as he turned his attention away from the fight back to the Hungry Wolf Knights. "I have an idea! Do you guys know how to keep him still? I think we can take him out in one solid hit!" Bernard said to the duo.

"My purple paper is the god of sealing. It can stop movement." Kamika said as she held up a piece of purple paper.

"I can use my Gravity Zone to keep him on the ground too!" Uosuke exclaimed, hoping to help.

"Good! That means the numbers game will play to our advantage!" Bernard said with some optimism in his voice. "Do it now!"

"Terrain Effect: Gravity Zone!" Uosuke shouted as he got close to Toglafane and raised his glowing hands.

The air pressure around Toglafane got heavy as the gravity shifted and forced him and his wings to head down towards the ground. Now on all fours, Toglafane was struggling to stand upright like before.

_"Damn it! I am running low on power! I got to try and make a break for it!" _Toglafane thought as he attempted to fight off the effects of Uosukes gravity alterations and force himself up. Getting back to his feet to fight off the gravitational pushdown, Toglafane noticed multiple pieces of purple paper start to cover his body in various places. As the paper covered him, he felt his movements become sealed as his body could no longer muster the strength to fight off the gravity as the paper prevented him from leaving the hunched over position his body was in. "What?!" Toglafane exclaimed as he was shocked that he couldn't move.

"Paper Blizzard: Purple Dance..." Kamika said as Toglafane turned his attention towards the Hungry Wolf Knight. A smirk appeared on her face as she held a piece of purple paper in her hand. "Can't dodge now, can you, criminal?" Kamika continued.

"I noticed something about how you looked and how you moved around." Bernard said as he approached Formosa. "You thrive on blood because it gives you a ton of strength and agility despite the fact you look skinny and it clashes with your appearance." Bernard explained. "I was also wondering why you didn't try using a defensive spell the entire time because then I realized just how much you rely on your ability to absorb blood. You waste your power too frequently which explained why you were constantly eating which also means you have no self control of your abilities. You're a really crappy Dragon Slayer." Bernard joked after explaining Toglafane's massive faults.

"Like you are one to talk?! You haven't done a damn thing to help and relied on those two knights and these freaky pets of yours to fight!" Toglafane said while immobile, criticizing Bernard as Vulp and Corvus proceeded to wave off their pain from Toglafanes previous attacks.

"Corvus! Vulp! Over here!" Bernard motioned for the Celestial Spirits to come back over to him as Vulp stood next to Bernard and Corvus perching on his shoulder.

"As soon as we are done, I need a towel..." Corvus said as he continued to get the blood off his feathers.

"Just try to get close to me!" Toglafane exclaimed in anger as he threatened the Hungry Wolf Knights who attempted to get closer. "The moment you do, I'll suck your blood and gain even more power! Then I'll show your little containment magic who's boss!" Toglafane wildly ranted.

"He's right, don't get close... Not yet." Bernard said as he motioned for Kamika and Uosuke to stand back away from him. "There's something I wanted to try first." Bernard said as he placed his hand on Formosa while motioned for Corvus and Vulp to back away as well. "Hey! Formosa! That book said something about a laser attack? You mind showing it to me?"

As he said that, Formosa turned its head in the direction of Toglafane. Opening its sharp mouth, Formosa had begun to siphon energy out of Bernards body once again. Within its mouth, an orb of green energy that matched Formosas eyes had begun to form and expand. As it grew in size, Bernard felt more and more disgruntled and tired as the energy to power up the large creature had begun to become too much for him.

"How!? How are you able to control it?!" Toglafane shouted loudly as it stared at Formosa charging up energy.

"I have... A Lacrima in me too..." Bernard said tiredly as he lifted his shirt slightly to reveal his Lacrima pacemaker. "Formosa... Now!" Bernard said exhausted as he fell to the ground.

Out of Formosas mouth was a massive green energy beam of immense power. As it head directly at the Blood Dragon Slayer, sweat dripped down Toglafanes face as the beam swept over him and felt the immense heat coming from the laser enveloping him. A loud explosion followed upon impact with the ground as a large smoke cloud emerged from the location where Toglafane was standing with the resounding shockwave spreading through the city, even managing to reach Mercurius castle.

"What was that?!" Arcadios said in the throne room with princess Hisui as they moved towards one of the windows and looked out to see the explosion.

As the dust and smoke dissipated, The Hungry Wolf Knights and the Celestial Spirits headed in the direction of where Toglafane was. Now in the center of a large crater, Toglafane was unconscious as he was laying in the dirt and rubble with his eyes rolled back into his head and covered in burning marks from Formosas attack.

"We got him!" Uosuke exclaimed as they all looked at the body of the once dangerous town undertaker and Blood Dragon Slayer.

"Thank god!" Corvus exclaimed happily. "Kid, you- Oh no!" As he turned around to congratulate Bernard for his help, Corvus had noticed Bernard was also down on the ground unconscious. "Kid?!" Corvus exclaimed as him, Vulp, Kamika and Uosuke turned their attention back towards Bernards downed body with Formosa standing over him.

* * *

**Crocus can never just avoid problems in terms of property damage, can they? Whether it's at the hands of Dragons, Fairy Tail, Demons or just some guy with a pacemaker, the capital of Fiore always needs some construction assistance it looks like. But at least we can say one problem was taken care of as Markle Toglafane was defeated by the combined efforts of Kamika, Uosuke and Bernard with his allies; Corvus, Vulp and, surprisingly, the liquid Etherious monster, Formosa. With his defeat, what happens next? Find out next time on "Menagerie!" **

**(Author here: I'm not the best fight scene writer. My strengths is more conversation pieces between characters and humor bits. I'm still trying to get better at it but hey, can't be good at everything you know? I wanted to avoid making excruciatingly long chapters but unfortunately, this chapter got long too like the one two chapters ago. I got to try and work on this to keep the pace more structured. Thanks for reading and see you next time.)**


	10. Chapter 10

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mercurius Castle, 9:03 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

With the defeat of the town coroner, Markle Toglafane and his blood sucking destruction that left a part of the town of Crocus in shambles, peace quietly begun to return to the capital of the kingdom of Fiore. Within the secure confines of a guest bedroom of the royal family palace laid Bernard O'Halloran after he fell unconscious from the previous days successful confrontation with the Blood Dragon Slayer.

"Rgghh…" A shirtless Bernard grumbled as he laid in an astonishingly large bed. At the edge of the bed, Corvus and Vulp perked up as they noticed their friend begun to stir awake.

"Oh thank the stars! He's waking up!" Corvus exclaimed loudly as he and Vulp moved closer to where Bernard was on the bed. Suddenly, Bernard rose from the pillow his head was laid on and begun to flail wildly.

"Guh!? Don't knock my head off!" Bernard screamed as he woke up from his slumber as Corvus and Vulp were surprised at what he was shouting.

"Whoa! Kid? You okay?!" Corvus exclaimed as Bernard looked around in a hasty manner.

"What the?! Wha- Oh..." Bernard rambled incoherently as turned and saw Vulp and Corvus standing at his sides on the bed. Turning his head away from the Celestial Spirits, Bernard scanned the room with his eyes and noticed he was in an unfamiliar location from where he was yesterday.

Around him was a luxurious yellow walled bedroom with beautiful wooden furniture with a large set of windows that were covered by extravagant red curtains. Looking down at the bed, Bernard noted the large size of it and how comfy the silk blankets were and the large amount of pillows that adorned it.

"Did we die and go to the nice place?" Bernard said to the Celestial Spirits who were confused by his reaction.

"If me and Vulp died, we would have went back to the Celestial Spirit world. Don't know about where you are going. Hehe." Corvus joked as Vulp moved towards Bernard. Lightly laying on his lap, Vulp proceeded to nuzzle against Bernards legs like a dog would to its owner.

"Then the only other place I could guess is... Mercurius?" Bernard said to Corvus as he proceeded to brush Vulp's blue fur with one of his hands.

"Bingo." Corvus said as he looked at Vulp enjoying being petted by Bernard.

As the crow agreed with Bernards answer, the door to the bedroom had opened as a pair of familiar people proceeded to enter.

"Morning, "Sleeping Beauty."' Arcadios said as he noticed Bernard was conscious while walking next to princess of the royal family, Hisui E. Fiore. "Glad to see you are alright." He continued with a voice full of relief.

"It's relieving to see you and your pets are fine." Hisui said with a similar tone of relief.

"Yeah, no kidding..." Bernard said as Corvus proceeded to perch himself on Bernards right shoulder. "What happened? Did we win?" Bernard asked of the pair.

"To put it into simple terms, yes." Arcadios said as he folded his arms. "Thanks to you, a major threat to the kingdom and the people in it was stopped. First Hargeon and now the capital city, maybe you should consider a job in crime fighting." He continued as Bernard proceeded to scratch his face in embarrassment at the praise he was given.

"You hear that kid? Maybe you can get a job with the royal family as a bodyguard or something." Corvus joked while still on Bernards shoulder to his chagrin.

"Oh ha ha..." Bernard responded with sarcasm to the crow Celestial Spirit. "I didn't really do anything special. All I did was point and shout a lot." He claimed in a way that downplayed his contribution.

"Pointing and shouting is one thing but to be completely honest, you helped a lot." Hisui said as she approached the bed and sat on one of the edges. "The kingdom is grateful for the effort you and your Celestial Spirits have done to protect its people." Hisui said with a slightly bow as she sat on the edge, prompting Bernard, Corvus and Vulp to look in surprise.

"Wow uhh… Thank you." Bernard said with a blush as he was surprised by Hisuis kind words to him. "Actually wait... What happened after I was knocked out?" Bernard questioned to Arcadios.

"After the attack that massive monster had unleashed onto to the coroner, the Rune Knights and some members of the Magic Council had came to arrest him for his crimes." Arcadios explained. "When I had arrived, I motioned for Kamika and Uosuke to take you and your pets to the palace for medical care." He continued.

"After the army and Magic Council had taken him into custody, the crimes he had amassed were so serious that the trial ended in minutes last night." Hisui explained

"Wait, I have been asleep for nearly a day?!" Bernard exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah, we thought about hanging out in your ticker but we wanted to be sure you were fine." Corvus said as Bernard turned his head towards him on his shoulder as Vulp continued to nuzzle himself against his lap and chest.

"Nice to know you guys like me for more than just being your power source." Bernard joked.

"Nah, I just wanted to make sure my energy bank was still able to keep me kicking. Hehehe." Corvus joked as the two made dumb looks at eachother as Vulp licked Bernards face as a show of affection. "Guess Vulp's happy you can still give him energy too."

"Knock it off Vulp, I'm good." Bernard said with a soft smile to the fox Celestial Spirit as he continued to pet him, Arcadios and Hisui making similar smiles in response. "Wait a minute... I woke up with my shirt off..." Bernard said with a realization.

"Yes, we wanted to make sure you were alright while we checked your pacemaker Lacrima." Arcadios said in response.

After telling him this, Bernard proceeded to move Corvus and Vulp off his body and moved the blanket over his lower half. Looking down at his blue pants, he pulled the covers away to take a look at his feet to see they were still covered by his socks.

"My feet are still covered?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, I told them how you like to sleep with your feet covered by your socks. Even though I find that completely weird." Corvus said as he stood on the bed.

"Good..." Bernard said mildly relieved to the confusion of everyone around him as he noticed everyone was looking. "I-It's kind of a good luck charm of mine to wear socks while I sleep, you know?!" Bernard said in a nervous kind of way.

As he continued to oddly laugh, the door to the bedroom opened again, prompting everyone to turn their attention towards it. Emerging into the room was Kamika who had a cast on her arm and Uosuke who was covered in bruises.

"You guys have seen better days." Corvus said to the Hungry Wolf Knight duos chagrin.

"Maybe the kingdom should invest in bird muzzles to keep chatty seagulls like you quiet." Kamika said with annoyance.

"I am a crow!" Corvus shouted in anger.

"Anyway..." Kamika said as she turned her attention towards Bernard, ignoring Corvus' complaining. "How you feeling?" She said to Bernard.

"I'm good. But it looks like you two got the brunt of the damage." Bernard said as he looked at the twos wounds.

"Nothing we couldn't handle." Uosuke said as he rubbed one of his wounds. "Still managed to do our job though."

"What does that mean?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow as he noticed Uosuke reached into the pocket of his blue shorts.

"Here you go boss man." Uosuke said as he gave Arcadios a small red and white gemstone.

"Hmmmm… Good work." Arcadios said as he turned his attention towards Kamika and Uosuke and then to Bernard.

"What's that?" Bernard said as he looked at the red and white gemstone.

"Dragon Slayer Lacrima, previously owned by one Marka-Mac... Malto Telif-" Arcadios stumbled his words as he was beginning to screw up saying Markle Toglafanes name to his embarrassment.

"Guess it really is a hard name to speak." Hisui joked to everyone laughing at the commander of the royal army making a fool of himself as Vulp laid down next to the princess who proceeded to pet him.

"Wait, if Uosuke had that then that means..." Bernard said as he stopped chuckling to grab everyone's attention.

"Yup. No more Blood Dragon Slayer." Kamika said with a satisfied look on her face.

"Did you... You know?" Bernard asked with some hesitation as he made a head chop motion with his hand against his neck.

"Pretty much." Uosuke said with a plain expression. "We removed that from his cold body. Decomposing down in the Palace of Hades." He continued.

"Okay... Too much info..." Bernard said with a mildly grossed out face.

"How did he get his hands on that Lacrima and became a Dragon Slayer?" Corvus asked with some curiosity.

"During the trial, he said after the Grand Magic Games when the Eclipse plan happened, he went on a trip to a far off region in the north and found the Lacrima in an abandoned mine after he was "enthralled" by the concept of Dragon Slayers." Arcadios said as he stared at the Lacrima. "Wanting to be a powerful wizard like Natsu Dragneel or Sting Eucliffe, he implanted it into himself using surgical tools and gained Blood Dragon Slayer Magic."

"Thought something was weird about him..." Bernard said while thinking. "When I think of guys like the Twin Dragons from Sabertooth, Dragon Slayers are supposed to be strong looking and powerful. He looked like he hadn't spent a day in the sunlight as far as I could tell." Bernard said while using deductive reasoning.

"Precisely. He was physically weaker than an average Dragon Slayer and he couldn't control his need for the substance his body could ingest thanks to the Lacrima." Arcadios explained. "This is one of several cases we had seen in recent times where Dragon Slayer Lacrima was being discovered throughout Fiore and people are trying to get Dragon Slayer Magic."

"Okay, well what about the thing he found. Formosa." Bernard continued to question. After asking that, Arcadios reached behind his back and he pulled out the book that Bernard had found in the library.

"This book was property of an Etherious that we had encountered sometime ago named Lamy. She was a dangerous demonic scientist who experimented on humans to turn them into demons... But it looks like this book shows she worked on more than just humans." Arcadios said as he held up the book.

"I see- Wait? Lamy? The book said her name was "Lummy."' Corvus said with a raised eyebrow as Arcadios made a face with some annoyance in his expression.

"...Mr. O'Halloran... You read this book correct? You are aware of the lack of..."skill" in this persons handwriting?" Arcadios questioned to Bernard.

"Yes?" Bernard responded.

"She misspelled her own name…" Arcadios stated bluntly to everyone's confused expression.

"...She spelled her own name wrong?" Hisui asked of Arcadios.

"This person was an Etherious Demon and a scientist who experimented on people to turn them into her own kind... And her ability to write is worse than that of a kid who never shows up to a school literacy class..." Bernard said with a look of bewilderment.

"Well she wasn't human." Kamika said.

"Uhhh hello? Neither am I and I can at least understand how writing works." Corvus said as he raised his wing to get everyone's attention.

"Well... It's nice to know you can read but I still think the issue stands; I had to read the book of "the worlds smartest non-human moron" just to control the big monster slime golem." Bernard said as he turned to Corvus as Vulp moved from Hisuis side back over to Bernards side. "Speaking of which, how did you guys contain that thing?"

After Bernard said that, everyone in the room fell quiet and proceeded to look in Bernards direction. Looks of mild intrigue in their eyes as they all looked at him.

"Why is everyone looking at me?" Bernard said with confusion.

"We didn't contain the creature after you fell unconscious." Uosuke said with his normal dopey expression as he looked at Bernard like everyone else.

"Then what happened to it?" Bernard continued to question.

As he finished his sentence, everyone in the room proceeded to point their fingers at their chests. Kamika, Uosuke, Arcadios and Hisui specifically put their index fingers on the area right above their hearts. Turning his head, Bernard noticed Corvus was pointing his wing at his left side as well as Vulp who was doing a similar gesture with his tail.

"...No..." Bernard said as he came to a realization at what everyone was doing. "What?!" Bernard shouted loudly in a scream that echoed throughout the castle.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mercurius Courtyard, 9:34 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Walking out into the courtyard was the group of Bernard, Corvus and Vulp with Kamika, Uosuke, Arcadios and Hisui standing back from them by a couple of feet. Standing fully dressed in a grey short sleeve button up with a purple shirt underneath, blue pants, black and white sneakers and his usual brown beanie, Bernard looked at the open courtyard with an annoyed expression on his face.

_"You cannot be serious..."_ Bernard thought as he looked at the open space.

"Well, get to it kid." Corvus said as he was perched on Bernards right shoulder with Vulp sitting next to where Bernard was standing.

"And please, keep it from wrecking everything in sight!" Arcadios ordered from the location he, the princess and the Hungry Wolf Knights were standing.

"Uhhh… Formosa! Appear!" Bernard shouted as he held up his hand but to no avail as nothing happened. "Formosa? Ummmm… Come out?" He continued in an attempt to get the large liquid golem to appear before him. "Oh come on!" Bernard said with annoyance as he pulled his shirt slightly up and looked at his Lacrima pacemaker.

"Try nudging it a bit." Hisui suggested from the far corner where she was standing.

"Okay? Let me give that a try." Bernard said as he poked at his Lacrima gem. "Come on you stupid freaky thing! Come out- Oh?" Bernard shouted angrily at his pacemaker until he noticed the Lacrima had begun to react.

From pressing down on the Lacrima in his chest a number of times, the crystal begun to glow brightly until a liquid begun to flow out around the edges from where the gem was placed over his heart. Dripping out of him at a fast rate, Bernard watched with shock as red, blue and black fluid begun to spread from his body.

Watching as the liquid finally stopped flowing out of him, the slimy fluid had begun to grow in size and bone-like spikes had started to form from the large colorful mass. Legs and arms forming, the giant fluid golem known as Formosa had emerged with its glowing green eyes appearing as its mouth opened and roared a large echoing growl.

"...Okay, seriously! I have a question now!" Bernard said as he turned around in the direction of Hisui, Arcadios and the Hungry Wolf Knights. "How did this thing get inside me!?" Bernard questioned with a look of annoyance.

"After you passed out, the thing just melted down into a wet mass and covered over your unconscious body. Then it started to flow down into the edges around your pacemaker." Kamika answered.

"How does that make any sense?!" Bernard screamed in anger as he turned his head towards Formosa who was staring blankly in the direction of the castle.

"Well... We kind of checked by going inside you while we were unconscious..." Corvus said as Bernard turned his attention back towards him.

"Yeah? And?" Bernard said still aggravated.

"Okay so... Me and Vulp enter you in a way that makes it so we are just particles inside your Lacrima. This thing... It just liquifies itself and goes inside the gem physically so we basically go inside you and its just there in the crystal as well." Corvus explained with a slightly disturbed face.

"...What?!" Bernard shouted with widened eyes and scratching his head furiously.

"Could you please not scream on the castle grounds, Mr. O'Halloran." Arcadios suggested.

"Oh I am sorry... I'm just freaking the hell out because I am some boarding house for otherworldly monsters now!" Bernard shouted at Arcadios, inadvertently causing Hisui, Kamika and Uosuke to chuckle at his reaction.

"Well it doesn't bother me much. I live for free inside you." Corvus said with a smirk.

"Maybe I should start charging you rent!" Bernard said angrily to Corvus.

"Rent?! And how the hell am I supposed to pay!?" Corvus said with similar aggravation.

"Well whoever we find in Magnolia is going to pay for you- Oh god damn it!" Bernard said before cutting himself off as he came to a realization.

"Something wrong?" Hisui said with some curiosity at Bernards reaction.

"We were supposed to be looking for a way to get to Magnolia yesterday but all the crap with the coroner and the death pit under the castle and this thing distracted us!" Bernard said as he pointed at Formosa who proceeded to liquify down and begun to return into Bernards Lacrima pacemaker. "Great, now it's back inside me too." Bernard said while putting his hand on his face in annoyance.

"Well, you own it now." Uosuke said as the group walked over to Bernard and the Celestial Spirits.

"Look, I have enough magically powered other creatures inside me." Bernard said as he pointed both his hands at Corvus and Vulp. "Can't the kingdom or the Magic Council take care of this?" Bernard continued as he pointed at his heart.

"We thought about that but..." Arcadios said as he scratched against his face. "We thought it might be better if its inside you since it listens to you." He continued.

"Ugh..." Bernard relented as he accepted the fact he had to keep Formosa.

"If you want, we could offer you a more long term position in the Hungry Wolf Knights." Kamika suggested to Bernard who was confused.

"What?" Bernard said slightly bewildered.

"You have a knack for strategy and noticing things, maybe you could help out the kingdom and join our covert unit." Uosuke said in agreement with Kamikas suggestion.

"Look at that, you got a job kid." Corvus said with a smirk at Bernard.

"As much I appreciate the offer, working as an executioner for the kingdom doesn't sound like my cup of tea..." Bernard said as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Well we, at least, owe you some compensation for the job well done outside of letting you keep the monster." Hisui said to Bernard.

"...If you know a way to Magnolia, it would be nice." Bernard said, hoping for a positive answer.

"Well you are in luck actually." Arcadios said as he grabbed everyones attention. "The trains are finally heading to Magnolia after weeks of repair."

"Wait. "Weeks" of repair?" Bernard said confused.

"I know we couldn't go in Hargeon but I didn't think we couldn't go because of repairs of all things." Corvus said with some surprise.

"You can sorta blame the Fairy Tail guild for that..." Arcadios said with a bothered expression as Hisui made an embarrassed smile in response.

"What does that mean?" Bernard said with interest.

"Awhile ago, a member of Fairy Tail was on a job and had planned to go home via train to Magnolia. The train got hijacked and he fought off the bandits attempting to rob it." Arcadios explained.

"Okay?" Corvus said with confusion.

"The wizard knew a type of magic called "Crash" and it can cause a large amount of damage to the point it could destroy full mountains..." Arcadios said with some embarrassment in his tone. "He beat the bandits but he also destroyed the tracks... All of the tracks..." Arcadios continued as he put his hand on his face.

"By "all the tracks," you can't possibly mean..." Bernard said with shock at what he was being told.

"The damage he caused managed to go all the way from the Magnolia train station to every single train track connected to the station. The man was named "Gildarts" I believe." Kamika explained.

"No one has been able to go to Magnolia for weeks by train because all the train tracks have been so brutalized by his magics effect spreading." Uosuke said with his usual dopey expression.

As he finished speaking, Bernard and the Celestial Spirits mouths dropped in shock at the realization of one of the big hurdles preventing them from completing their journey.

_"Seriously!?" _Corvus thought in frustration.

_"We couldn't go to Magnolia because someone from the guild we need to go to destroyed every single train track!?" _Bernard thought in similar frustration as he, Vulp and Corvus slumped their heads in depression.

"Do you guys need some help?" Hisui said as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits raised their heads. "I can give you a free train pass towards Magnolia." She continued with a helpful smile, prompting Bernard, Corvus and Vulp to form more hopeful expressions.

"Really?! You can do that?!" Bernard said with some renewed hope as he approached Hisui.

"Princess of the kingdom. Remember?" Uosuke said in response.

"Please! We could use it! The kids almost out of money too!" Corvus said as he put his wings together in a begging style.

As she nodded, Arcadios reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper with a royal insignia on it. Handing over the paper to Bernard, he looked over it.

"So all I got to do is show the conductors this and they will let us go to Magnolia for free?" Bernard said, hoping for a positive answer.

"Correct. But just so you know, this trip will take around five days due to the damage Fairy Tail caused- Huh?" Hisui nodded and explained as she noted a peculiar sight of Bernard, Corvus and Vulp bowing before her.

"Thank you! You're a most gracious leader!" Bernard said as he continued to bow.

"Please, you don't need to do that. You might want to hurry though, the next train leaves soon enough." Hisui said as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits quickly got up.

"Oh?! Right! It was nice meeting all of you! Hope we can meet again sometime!" Bernard said as he started to run towards the gate of the castle with Vulp and Corvus tailing behind.

"Have a nice day!" Corvus said as him and Vulp ran off to follow Bernard.

As they ran off; Hisui, Arcadios and the two members of the Hungry Wolf Knights waved them goodbye.

"Princess, I have a little matter to discuss with you involving that young man." Arcadios said as he turned to Hisui.

"Yes?" Hisui said with a raised eyebrow.

"Some news outlets and some reporters from "Sorcerer Weekly" were skulking around during the fight and were hoping to do some interviews with some of the officials from the kingdom in regards to what happened so I figured I'd ask you this first. Because I want the Hungry Wolf Knights to remain a "covert" unit, I don't feel like we should reveal their names to the press." Arcadios explained to the princess.

"I see... That's a fair decision." Hisui said as she pondered what Arcadios wanted to do.

"Being as how a certain someone we had met the past two days was somewhat responsible for the criminals defeat, I was wondering if I could maybe use Mr. O'Hallorans name as the person who could receive the credit. I deputized him so he is legally viable." Arcadios suggested.

"I don't see why not." Hisui said as she and Arcadios begun to walk back into Mercurius.

"You think we should mention how much Bernard didn't want his name out there?" Uosuke whispered to Kamika.

"Nah, you know what they say; "there's no such thing as "bad publicity."' Kamika said in response.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Crocus Train Station, 10:04 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

After showing the conductor the pass for the train, Bernard had walked through the train cars, holding his backpack until he sat down in a set of seats. After sitting down, light particles begun to come out of his chest as Corvus and Vulp formed and sat down in the open seats near his own.

"Ahh! Feels good to sit down." Corvus said as he sat in his seat as Vulp proceeded to lay on Bernards lap.

"No kidding..." Bernard said as he looked out the window.

"Once this ride is over, all we got to do is find "dummy" and she'll get everything squared away." Corvus said as he stretched out in the seat.

"You mean "Lucy."' Bernard said as he turned his attention back towards Corvus.

"Whatever. We need to find a Celestial Spirits Wizard and she's in Magnolia so lets go bug her." Corvus said as he waved off the comment.

"Right, let's get this over-... Hold on." Bernard said before cutting himself off as he started to form a train of thought.

"What's up?" Corvus said as he turned towards Bernard.

"Back in the mansion... Hisui referred to you guys as "Celestial Spirits."' Bernard said in his train of thought.

"Okay?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"I certainly never told her that you were Celestial Spirits because I was unconscious... Did you?" Bernard questioned to the crow as Vulp begun to sit up and off Bernards lap.

"No... Why?" Corvus said, now becoming concerned as Bernard continued to think.

"Then... How did she know you were Celestial Spirits? Unless..." Bernard said as he started to come to a realization yet again.

"Unless... Wait. Oh no..." As Corvus came to a realization of his own, he placed his wing on his eyes and beak in shame.

"Princess Hisui was a Celestial Spirits Wizard..." Bernard said as he put his hand on his face as he came to a conclusion.

"Sonofabitch!" Corvus shouted loudly as some of the other people in seats turned to see the crow screaming his head off.

"Calm down! It's too late now!" Bernard shouted in an attempt to calm down Corvus.

"Ugh! Fine!" Corvus said as he crossed his wings in anger.

"Look, where we are going has a Celestial Spirits Wizard. We can wait..." Bernard said as he attempted to calm down Corvus and himself.

"Yeah, yeah... Wait, Didn't Hisui say something about "five days?"' Corvus said with a raised eyebrow as Vulp looked at Bernard for his answer.

"Five days? Oh crap, she meant this trip via train will take five days." Bernard said as he put his hand on his face.

"The hell we gonna do for five days on a train?" Corvus said annoyed as he noticed Vulp reached into Bernards backpack with his head and pulled out a deck of cards that was hanging from his mouth.

"Cards?" Bernard said as he looked at the deck in Vulps mouth. "Works for me."

"...Okay, fine." Corvus sighed as he agreed to play.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hemlock Village, 11:00 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Two days had passed since the damage in the capital city that was caused by the Blood Dragon Slayer, Markle Toglafane. Since the events that had occurred in Crocus, news outlets such as Sorcerer Weekly had reported on the incident and the details spread to the far reaches of Fiore about a wizard by the name of "Bernard" who had defeated a dangerous criminal using a pair of animals and a giant slime-like monster.

Near a mountain range named "Cayman Rock," the village of Hemlock stood on the edge of a creek running through the center of town. Predominantly made of brick stores and small buildings, the quaint village gave off a calming air to it. Despite the small buildings making up a majority of the town, one structure on the edge of the town stood out; a large red and yellow big top circus tent next to the woods at the edge of the mountains. In front of the big tent was a large sign that read "Psycho Circus."

Inside the tent was a large bar area that had a multitude of wooden benches with various people sitting in the seats. Men and women dressed in acrobat leotards and clown make up made up the crowd of people that congregated under the big top. Sitting at the bar was a small man with a body that could be best described as "bowling pin-like" dressed in a green and black tailcoat with a pair of black slacks and black shoes and a top hat on his head. Turning around, he noticed someone approach him.

"Master... Take a look at this." Said the voice of a young woman who approached the small man while holding a magazine that read "Sorcerer Weekly" on the cover.

"Something worth talking about in the news for once?" The small man said with a smirk as he turned towards the young woman.

"Look at who is on the cover..." The woman said with a serious tone as she gave the book to the small man.

"Oh?" The small man said as he grabbed the book and noted the cover had someone incredibly familiar to him on it. "This would be a funny joke if it's true. Is it?" The small man asked of the young woman.

"It mentions his name..." The woman said while folding her arms and having a slightly aggravated tone.

"Does this issue list where he is going?" The small man asked.

"An official from the kingdom mentioned Magnolia. It's what the article he is listed in says so as well... And I am assuming by train." The young woman said still aggravated.

"Then it looks like you should be heading to the trains station. Go grab some people to bring along as well because if it's true he has assistance, then he might fight back." The small man suggested as the woman turned around and headed towards one of the tables in the hall.

"Its about time we found you... Bernard." The small man said to himself with a smirk as he looked at the cover that had a candid photo of Bernard from his battle with the Blood Dragon Slayer on the cover.

* * *

**Life is hard when you are just a simple man with a pacemaker. Now everyone thinks you are some kind of hero with a pet army that was given the full credit for defeating a Dragon Slayer and now have the ownership of a giant fluid golem because the people with authority thought it might be better to give it to the person with control over it. Now that Bernard and the Celestial Spirits have completed their time in Crocus and are back on the hunt to find Lucy Heartfilia and head to the town of Magnolia, their biggest hurdle is now upon them: a very boring train ride. But then again... Who are these people that are interested in finding the young pacemaker handicapped man. And are they friend or foe? Find out next time on Menagerie!**

**(I have no author notes here, I am just writing to say; the next story arc is going to be the one I am most interested in writing. But I am not telling you why. :P)**


	11. Chapter 11

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Train, 1:11 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"...I can't believe this..." Bernard said as he sat in his seat on the train with a look of complete despair.

Four days had passed since the trio of Bernard, Corvus and Vulp had left the capital on the way to Magnolia in an attempt to find Lucy Heartfilia for assistance. With their time being spent between eating food that had been purchased at different junction points and playing odd games of cards and dares, fatigue had begun to set in.

"Hey, don't be glum. At least the photo was pretty decent." Corvus said as he sat next to Vulp in a nearby seat.

"I have every right to be glum! Look at this!" Bernard said as he held up a magazine and showed the cover to the Celestial Spirits.

In his hands was a copy of the recent issue of Sorcerer Weekly, a magazine detailing the latest news and gossip in the world of wizardry and magic. On the front of the magazine, however, was something that confused and angered the young beanie-sporting man as the cover photo showed a photo of Bernard standing in front of his newly acquired slime monster, Formosa, alongside Corvus and Vulp with a headline that read; "Monster Controlling Man defeats Vampire and saves Capital City."

"They gave me all the stupid credit!" Bernard said aggravated at the notion that the royal family publicized his involvement in stopping the Blood Dragon Slayer.

"Yeah but hey, look at the bright side. Your name is out there as a hero and not as a criminal that got executed like they originally tried to do to us." Corvus said as he tried to calm down Bernard.

"They couldn't be bothered to name Kamika or Uosuke!? And try to not make it look like we did everything!?" Bernard said as he complained and flailed the magazine violently in his hands.

"I don't mind it. I got my name out there and now all the silver key Celestial Spirits back home can read and weep at how awesome of a job I did fighting a Dragon Slayer of all things." Corvus said with a happy smirk as he gloated about his involvement to Vulp who looked at the crow with indifference. "Hey, don't you look at me like that, you helped too." Corvus said as he tried to avoid angering the fox.

"Nice to know you guys are enjoying the publicity..." Bernard said sullenly after he handed the book to Corvus who proceeded to skim to the article about himself and the events back in the capital.

"Hey check this out; "During the attack by the vampire-like man, a lone wizard appeared to confront him, controlling a trio of creatures in the form of a giant fluid monster, a blue dog-" Hahaha! Vulp got called a "dog!"' Corvus laughed while pointing a wing at Vulp who was getting angry at the crows mocking until Bernard reached over and picked up Vulp and putting him on his lap to calm him down.

"Calm down Vulp, watch this. Keep reading..." Bernard said as Vulp proceeded to lay on his lap in a comfortable way.

'"Giant fluid monster, a blue dog and a... black and purple chicken..." Seriously!? I'm not a chicken!" Corvus screamed in frustration as Bernard and Vulp smiled at the crows angry tirade. "This magazine is written by a load of hacks!" Corvus shouted as he threw the copy of Sorcerer Weekly on the ground.

"The guy in charge of it is some real weirdo from what I heard. Can't stop shouting "cool" at everything." Bernard said as he petted Vulp on his lap.

"Ugh..." Corvus sighed in discontent. "How long left on this stupid train...?" Corvus questioned annoyed.

"Less than a day." Bernard said with similar annoyance.

"Ugh... We have to spend nearly another day on this stupid thing?" Corvus said with continued annoyance.

"You guys want to play cards again?" Bernard suggested as Vulp shook his head left and right is signify a "no."

"No thank you... We've played every card game known to humankind already; poker, gin rummy, blackjack, crazy eights, go fish! I'm tired of playing cards!" Corvus complained as Bernard breathed a bored sigh.

"...Oh I got an idea." Bernard said with some renewed vigor as he reached into his backpack that was on the floor.

Sticking his arm into a pouch, Bernard pulled out a small jar that was full of multicolored peppers that had a label on it that read; "Blitz Peppers: Bound to Make You Cry!"

"Oh, those the spicy peppers you got at that one junction yesterday?" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked at the jar in Bernards hand.

"Got a new game we can play to pass a few minutes." Bernard said to the Celestial Spirits who were interested. "Very simple. These peppers are designed to not be eaten as the way they are, they are supposed to be cut up and served with food because they are too spicy while whole. We each put a full pepper in our mouth and chew on it." Bernard explained as he pulled out a water bottle from his backpack.

"A stamina game?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow as Vulp moved to the seat next to Bernard.

"Losers are decided by the first person to try and get the water bottle." Bernard said as he placed the water bottle on the ground as he opened up the jar of peppers. Pulling out a yellow pepper, a green pepper and a red pepper, he handed the green one to Vulp, whose tail was now a blue hand to hold the pepper and the red one to Corvus, who held it in his wing.

"Winner gets anything?" Corvus questioned as he sniffed the pepper as Vulp did the same.

"The right to call themselves a person who handles spice better than the others?" Bernard responded with no clear idea of what to answer with.

"Not much of a reward..." Corvus said with an unenthusiastic voice as Vulp made a similarly disinterested expression at the winners prize.

"Okay, fine. If one of you two win, I'll give the winner anything they want in Magnolia." Bernard said with frustration as he didn't personally want to give a real prize.

"Works for me." Corvus said as he shrugged his shoulders with Vulp nodding in compliance.

"Okay, open wide guys." Bernard motioned as he, Vulp and Corvus opened their mouths and begun to eat the peppers.

As they chew, Corvus has begun to feel like his tongue was being set on fire. At the same time, Vulps eyes widened to the point it looked like his eyes would fall out of his skull while Bernards face had brightened like a cherry tomato from the heavy heat making him feel like he was sitting in an active furnace.

_"Okay! Maybe this wasn't a good idea!" _Bernard mentally screamed as he continued to attempt to chew the pepper.

_"I need water! Now!" _Corvus thought as he held his nose holes on his beak as the hot peppers caused his nostrils to flare.

Giving up, Bernard and Corvus both quickly rushed for the water bottle on the ground as they scrambled to get a sip. With Corvus pecking at Bernards head to get a drink, Bernard quickly took a swig of the water bottle before passing it to Corvus who stopped pecking Bernard to swallow the rest.

"Dear god!" Bernard exclaimed as he gasped for air after drinking the water.

"Bless the stars! That was awful!" Corvus shouted as he breathed hard.

"Okay! That was... not a fun game!" Bernard said with regret as he continued to pant.

"Yeah... We are never... Doing that again..." Corvus said as he copied Bernard.

Turning their heads, they noticed Vulp was still chewing the pepper in his mouth. Shocked, Bernard and Corvus couldn't help but feel defeated as the fox looked at them with a look of superiority.

"Guess we know who the winner is." Bernard said as he got back up and looked at Vulp with a bewildered look.

"Unbelievable!" Corvus shouted as he looked at Vulp, still chewing and handling the spiciness. "Damn it, I am going to the bathroom in the next car." Corvus said as he flapped his wings and flew over to the door to leave the train car.

"Whats wrong, need to vent over Vulp beating you?" Bernard said with a smirk.

"No! I need to crap out this stupid pepper before it rips my butt to shreds before we get to our destination!" Corvus screamed as he pulled the door open with his feet and closed the door to the next car.

As Bernard watched Corvus be frustrated, his attention turned towards Vulp. Spitting out the pepper onto the floor that was covered in spit, Bernard looked at it and noticed the suspicious lack of bite marks around the spicy vegetable.

"You didn't even really bite into it, you just rolled it around your mouth and pretended. Didn't you?" Bernard said as he looked at Vulp with a look of agitation.

Look at him, Vulp proceeded to smirk at his victory as he looked at Bernard.

"...Guess I have to buy you whatever you want in Magnolia." Bernard said with a defeated smile on his face as he petted Vulp once again.

As they chatted, Corvus entered the next train car in an effort to go the bathroom.

"Damn pepper game..." Corvus grumbled to himself as he flapped his wings and moved through the train car. "Next game, I'll decide what we play and- Huh?" Corvus talked to himself until he turned his head and stopped to see a peculiar group of people sitting in two sets of seats facing one another.

One of the individuals was a young tan man with a chimp-like face with sideburns. His red and yellow hair stood tall on his head in spikes as he was oddly dressed in a pair of white baggy pants that stopped at his ankles, a pair of black arm bands and black bands around his ankles that his pants were stuffed in. Not wearing a shirt, his tone chest was exposed as his bare feet were propped up on a large yellow ball with a pair of googly eyes and a drawn on sharp tooth smile on it. On his exposed right shoulder was a logo of a red smiling clown face.

Another was a woman with pale skin and turquoise wavy long hair on her head that stopped at her upper back. She was dressed in a long loose sleeved white and blue dress that ended in a miniskirt with a black belt around her waist and white strap shoes. She appeared pretty but there was notably odd aspects to her visually. Her skin was scaled and blotchy with marks that were similar to a chameleons skin, she had a pair of snake-like fangs sticking out of her mouth and her eyes were terrifyingly unique as her sclera appeared black and her irises were blue swirls. On the back of her left hand was a turquoise smiling clown face that matched the monkey mans.

Next to her was a large, chubby and yet muscular-looking older man with a bald head and a handlebars moustache that was sporting a white button up shirt and a pair of black slacks with a set of suspenders. Laid over his shoulder was a large ornate golden belt that appeared similarly to a wrestling championship that had a large golden clown face on it that matched the logo the other two had. Sitting with his eyes closed and his arms crossed, he appeared like he was deep in thought.

_"The heck kind of party is this?" _Corvus thought as he passed by the group as he headed towards the entrance to the bathroom in the train car. Entering the bathroom, he closed the door to the latrine.

"The hell's wrong with the conductors on this train!? They almost didn't let me on!" The monkey faced man said with annoyed fury in his voice to the group.

"Anatoli, you don't wear shoes or a shirt to most places. You ever heard the term; "no shirt, no shoes, no service?"' The chameleon-like woman said in response to the monkey man named Anatoli.

"Oh shut up Marlene! That motto refers to food places, not trains!" Anatoli said with continued annoyance to the chameleon woman named Marlene.

"Not my fault you like to just go to everywhere half-naked, you weird chimp." Marlene said as she stuck out her tongue at Anatoli, revealing her forked tongue to the chimp-like man.

"Bare feet and no shirt is not half naked! I don't walk around places with just my underwear like some oddball!" Anatoli shouted in his defense.

"I don't think "walk around" is the appropriate term to use for you since you like to stand on your weird rolling ball." Marlene said as she pointed at the large ball Anatolis feet were on.

"I don't normally go on trains! And after this is over, never again..." Anatoli said as he crossed his arms.

"You most assuredly are." Said the large bald man as he opened his eyes with Marlene turning her head towards the bald man and Anatoli looking up at him. "Remember, we are here for a reason and hopefully it can be handled calmly."

"Yes, Pietro..." Anatoli said to the large bald man named Pietro.

"We can't become too distracted by this trip. You know who we are looking for and we have to be careful not to startle him so he runs away." Pietro said with a serious tone.

"What makes you so sure he will run? He knows who we are, there's a chance he might not run." Marlene suggested in a way that sounds like she wanted to avoid conflict.

"I kind of agree with the lizard." Anatoli said as Marlene looked at him with anger over his comment on her appearance. "It's not like he could fight back against any of us in his condition." He continued.

"Didn't you read the article from Sorcerer Weekly?" Pietro said as he pulled out a copy of Sorcerer Weekly from behind his back. "He has a pair of animals with him and some kind of slimy monster as well."

"He... He wouldn't sic those things on us... That'd be too cruel, even for him." Marlene said with some hesitation.

"Any ideas how he might have gotten them? My guess is that he has spent the last number of months in the woods and became an animal whisperer." Anatoli said as he put his hands over his mouth like he was trying to whisper to the confusion of Pietro and Marlene.

"It doesn't matter..." Said a female voice next to Anatoli and across from Marlene and Pietro that caught the groups attention.

Sitting next to Anatoli was a young and beautiful woman that was looking out the window with a disgruntled look on her face. Long brown hair flowed down her backside that stopped past her waist, she was dressed in a dark red tank top and a pair of blue jean-like shorts that exposes much of her legs with a grey jacket wrapped around her waist and wearing a pair of brown boots. She had an impressive figure that appeared fit and slender with an impressive pair of shapely breasts that had a brown clown face logo on the left side breast underneath one of the straps of her tank top.

"Even if he has help, we are going to knock them out and force him to come with us..." The young woman said without looking at her comrades.

"We don't have to resort to violence." Pietro said to the young woman as she glanced towards him. "He knows who we are, it makes no sense to try and attack him." He said in an effort to calm down the agitated girl.

"I kind of have to agree." Marlene said as she spoke up. "We don't know what he is like now. Plus he still has that problem with his heart, it might not be the best call." She continued.

"You guys don't have to do anything if you see him." The young woman said as she formed a fist with one of her hands. "But when I find him... I'm going to shatter his nose into a billion pieces..." The young woman said with an enraged expression as she continued to look out the window.

_"Really am hoping we find him fast and before she tries to deck him..." _Anatoli thought with some cold sweat dripping down his face as he looked at the young woman become more and more angry.

Emerging out from the bathroom was Corvus, a look of irritability on his face as he rubbed his chest with his left wing.

_"Blurgh… Gonna have a "hot pepper dump" again later..."_ Corvus thought as he begun to flap his wings to get into the air.

Flying towards the ceiling, Corvus moved towards the direction of the car that Bernard and Vulp were in as he passed by the group of people once again.

_"Man this is an odd crew- Whoa!?" _Corvus thought about the oddly looking group until his attention was towards the beautiful looking brown haired girl who was staring out of the window. _"Holy wet dreams! That's what I call a smoking hottie!" _Corvus mentally continued as his nose begun to have a trickle of blood dripping out of one of his nostrils.

Turning away from the window, the young woman looked up towards the ceiling to notice the birdlike creature looking at her lustfully, followed by Pietro, Anatoli and Marlene. With the group turning their heads in his direction, Corvus proceeded to shake his head to regain some of his composure and wiped off the nosebleed coming out of his beak.

"Oh! Uh, sorry about that. Pardon me." Corvus said embarrassed as he begun to flap his wings and headed back to the train car his friends were in.

"Was that a talking bird?" Anatoli said bewildered.

"Why are you surprised? You're practically a talking chimp." The young brown haired woman said jokingly, causing Pietro and Marlene to chuckle as Anatoli made a disgruntled look in response.

"So you can crack a smile, Camilla!" Pietro said with a content look on his face as the young woman named Camilla cracked a slight smirk from the humorous distraction they had witnessed.

Coming through the door to the train car, Corvus flew over to the seats Bernard and Vulp were occupying as Bernard was drinking a water bottle.

"Hey, welcome back. You managed to crap out the pepper?" Bernard said as he continued to try and drink his water in an attempt to get the feeling back in his tongue.

"Nope, gonna definitely need another bathroom trip later." Corvus said as he sat down next to Vulp. "Oh but we got some real characters in the next car over. Real odd lookers I saw as I headed to the can." Corvus said as he caught Bernards attention.

"Oh let me guess, it's that guy with piercings and black clothes who was puking his brains out with a cute blue haired girl and his weird pet black cat with a sword right?" Bernard said as he looked over his shoulder towards the other car. "I thought they got off at the last junction?"

"No! It's a bigger group, way odder." Corvus said as he waved off Bernards guess.

"More weirder than us? Hehe?" Bernard said jokingly.

"Hey! I ain't weird! I am a Celestial Spirit!" Corvus said in defense of himself. "The guys I'm referring to looked way stranger than we do!"

"Okay, describe them." Bernard said as he continued to drink his water.

"There's four of them. One of them is this large bald guy with a handlebar moustache. Got big muscles where his arms are but he has a bit of a bulging gut." Corvus said as he described one of the group.

"How's that weird?" Bernard said as Vulp looking at Corvus as he explained the group. "That doesn't sound like a dude that's "out of the ordinary" to me." Bernard said as he voiced his opinion as he had his water bottle in his mouth.

"Well, this other guy was odd. Dude had a monkey face and no shirt or shoes. And his feet were sitting on a large ball with a set of googly eyes drawn on it- Huh?" Corvus described another of the group until he suddenly stopped as he heard a crunching noise that sounded like someone biting on plastic.

Looking at Bernard, Corvus noticed that he was now biting down on the top part of the water bottle he had in his hands as he made a disgruntled and nervous face.

"Uhhh… Something wrong?" Corvus said as he looked at Bernard.

"N-No! I'm fine! Just keep talking... What else did they look like?" Bernard exclaimed as he motioned to Corvus to keep talking as Vulp even raised an eyebrow as he looked at Bernard. _"It can't be... It's not them... It can't be them. I'm just overthinking." _He thought as he went back to drinking the water.

"There was a girl with them. She looked kinda cute but she had some skin blotches and these weird swirly eyes. I could have confused for her for some human/lizard hybrid-What the?!" Corvus described another individual until he noticed another peculiar sight.

Bernard, spitting out his water with intense force from his mouth, had covered the entire window on the side of the seats with his backwash following Corvus describing another one of the people in the nearby train car.

"What the hell was that?" Corvus said bewildered as he and Vulp looked at Bernard panting after spitting out his drink.

_"Oh crap... Oh crap... It's... Wait... Is she?!" _Bernard thought as he turned his eyes towards Corvus as the beanie sporting young man had started to drip a cold sweat of fear.

"Corvus..." Bernard said as he stood up from his seat and picking up the crow Celestial Spirit with his two hands. "Was there someone else with them?" He questioned while swallowing his spit.

"Y-yeah?" Corvus thought as Bernard looked him in the eye.

"Was it a woman? About the same age as me?" Bernard said as he continued to make grim looks on his face.

"Yeah! Real smoking body on her! Nice rack, a cute face, smooth legs! Major hottie!" Corvus said as he made a lustful face as he thought about the girl with the group that stood out amongst the odd looking party. "Kid?" Corvus said as he looked at Bernard with sweat profusely dripping off his face.

Legs shaking, a look of dread forming on his face and his eyes twitching. He made a face of complete despair and looked as if he was fearing for his life as Corvus and Vulp watched him make looks of complete and total dread.

"We need to go... Now!" Bernard said as he put down Corvus and begun to put stuff back in his backpack haphazardly.

"What?! Why?!" Corvus said as he and Vulp stood up in surprise at Bernard sudden declaration for them to run.

"We aren't safe!" Bernard said as he put his backpack on and started to spring out of the seat with Corvus and Vulp rushing behind him to catch up.

"Kid! What the hell is wrong!?" Corvus said as Bernard turned around to face the two Celestial Spirits.

"Get inside me..." Bernard said as he motioned for the two to go inside his pacemaker Lacrima.

"Now?! Why?!" Corvus said as he looked at Bernard who was panicking.

"Just get inside or we are all doomed!" Bernard said to the Spirits as he pointed towards his heart.

"...Okay! Fine!" Corvus said as he and Vulp turned themselves into particles and entered into his Lacrima.

Looking back towards the direction of the train car that had the group of people in it. Gulping down and swallowing spit, Bernard opened the door to the outside area between the train cars. Standing in-between the train cars, Bernard looked out into the woods as the train moved past the forest.

"Okay Bernard... Time to try jumping out of trains..." Bernard said to himself with hesitation as he looked out at the woods.

Suddenly, one of the doors opened as a train conductor emerged from the door to the train car next to the one Bernard had been staying in.

"Excuse me, sir? What are you doing out here, shouldn't you be in your train car?" The conductor said to as he looked at the nervous and panicked face of Bernard.

"...This!" Bernard said as he jumped from the train into the woods. Rolling down the hill near the tracks and into the woods to the shock of the train conductor.

"Whoa!" The conductor said as he watched Bernard jump from the train. In shock, the conductor ran to the trains locomotive engine where other workers were stationed. "Stop the train! A guy just jumped off!" Following his exclamation, one of the workers quickly rushed towards an emergency break in an effort to stop the train.

"Guh! What the hell?!" Marlene said as the train begun to stop, causing the group to shake in their seats. Looking over towards the entrance to the car, the conductor who saw Bernard jump had arrived.

"Don't be alarmed folks but we just had someone jump from the train into the woods." The conductor said to inform the passengers.

"Someone jumped?" Anatoli said in surprise as he looked at the group he was with.

"Maybe someone needed to go somewhere else?" Marlene said unsure.

_"A person jumping off... And there was a bird on the train too... Wait a minute_..._"_ Camilla thought as she turned her attention towards Pietro. "Hey Pietro, can I see that copy of Sorcerer Weekly again?" She said as she motioned for Pietro to hand her the copy of the magazine.

Skimming through the pages, she stopped on the article about Bernard from the Capital and looked at the image of him standing with Corvus, Vulp and Formosa. Eyes widening in surprise, Camilla looked at the image and noticed the physical similarities between the bird that stared at her and the bird in the picture with Bernard. Turning her head, Camilla brushed passed her allies and proceeded to rush to the area in-between the train cars as she looked out into the woods.

"Guys!" Camilla shouted as Anatoli, Pietro and Marlene followed her to the outside. "I think the jumper is who we are looking for." Camilla said with a serious expression and a twitch in her eyes as she looked out into the woods.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Woods near Magnolia, 7:02 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

_"God damn, I knew that was a bad idea to jump from the train..." _Bernard thought as he clutched at his side as he rubbed a slightly wounded area of his body.

"Yeah no kidding... We could've been in Magnolia two hours ago if it wasn't for you making us jump." Corvus said disgruntled as he flew over Bernards head as he rubbed his wound while Vulp sniffed around on the ground.

"I know already..." Bernard said as he sat next to a tree. "Vulp, are we going in the right direction?" Bernard asked of the fox Celestial Spirit as it turned towards him and nodded.

"Okay, good. Corvus, you see anything?" Bernard said as he looked up at the overhead crow.

"Nope, I don't see anyone." Corvus said as he flew down to where Bernard and Vulp were, landing on the ground.

"Alright... Which means we are ahead by a good amount of distance..." Bernard said to himself. _"But if what Corvus said was true and that one is here, he couldn't see her but she can't keep herself from making noise."_ Bernard pondered as he looked around.

"Okay, I didn't question it until now but I gotta know, who are we running from?" Corvus asked as he flew up as Vulp started to move forward with Bernard following the fox Celestial Spirit.

"It's... Best you don't know." Bernard said with some hesitation as Corvus made a suspicious look towards him.

"I think it's best I do know so that we can deal with this, kid." Corvus said as he flew next to Bernard.

"We aren't "dealing" with anything. We are sticking to the plan and heading to Magnolia." Bernard as they continued to follow Vulp.

"When I saw them aboard the train, I saw some symbols on their bodies that looked like clown faced guild logos, so you have to tell me now if they are wizards or not?" Corvus asked as he continued to have growing concerns.

"...Yes, they are wizards." Bernard said with a sigh as he knew Corvus was going to keep questioning him.

"Okay, next question; how do you know that?" Corvus said as he continued to look at Bernard who was making a serious face as they trekked through the woods.

"...Alright, I'm not telling you absolutely everything for specific reasons but I can tell you who they are..." Bernard said as he stopped walking, causing Vulp to turn around to look at Bernard and Corvus to fly in front of him and meeting Bernard at eye level.

"Good enough for me..." Corvus said as he looked concerned.

"They are wizards that are part of a... dark guild. Called "Psycho Circus." Bernard said with slight hesitation. "If the descriptions of the people you mentioned are true, then I know exactly who the people are." Bernard said with a serious look on his face.

"Monkey faced dude, lizard chick, handlebar baldy and the hot brunette?" Corvus said as he ran off the list of people from the train. As he mentioned the last person, Bernard bit down on his lip in what looked like an attempt from saying something.

"Anatoli, Marlene, Pietro and... Camilla." Bernard said, with the last persons name having some agitation in his voice. As he finished speaking, Bernard motioned for Vulp to continue leading the way.

"They are all wizards? What can they do?" Corvus said, continuing to question Bernards relation to them.

"Anatoli has a large magic ball that can channel Wind Magic that he likes to ride on. Marlene is incredibly flexible and can use something called "Camouflage Magic" that can make her turn invisible to the naked eye. With Pietro, he has a giant wrestling belt you might have seen he likes to carry around, when he wears it; it shifts the muscles in his body and makes it so he is stronger physically than he already is." Bernard explained as he continued to walk.

"Okay so they are dark wizards and have a bunch of odd magics. Good to know but they don't sound all that threatening to me, nothing us and the big monster slime can't handle." Corvus said with confidence.

"We are not fighting them, I don't want anyone to fight! I just want to go to Magnolia and get this over with!" Bernard shouted as Vulp and Corvus noticed the commanding and angry tone in his voice.

"Okay, jeez, calm down." Corvus said as he noticed the aggravation in his voice. "What about the hot girl? Camilla, you said her name was?" He continued.

"...She is... Strong. Real strong…" Bernard said concerned.

"What can she do?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"She-" Bernard spoke until he noticed a sound that caught his attention. The noise of a tree branch breaking caused Bernard to turn around and look in the direction of where they came from. Swallowing spit, Bernard proceeded to increase the pace of his walking as he walked past Vulp and Corvus in the direction Vulp was leading.

"Hey kid! Wait!" Corvus said as he attempted to catch up to Bernard with Vulp following suit.

"We can't slow down for a second." Bernard as he walked past the trees.

"Shouldn't we get some rest? And so I can take a dump to get rid of that pepper from this morning?" Corvus said as he attempted to keep up.

"Just crap like a normal bird does! Overhead and onto the ground as you fly!" Bernard shouted a suggestion to the crow.

"I am not some average bird!" Corvus said with annoyance as he waved off Bernards suggestion for him to crap while moving.

"Just do it! I am not slowing down!" Bernard shouted as they continued to walk.

As they walked, they had failed to notice that someone was watching them from overhead. Standing atop his googly eyed yellow ball was Anatoli as he looked down in the direction Bernard and his Celestial Spirit allies were walking while floating above the air.

"Looks like I win the "split up and find him" game." Anatoli said to himself with a smile as he watched Bernard fast walking through the woods. "Better go inform the others the direction he is going." He continued talking to himself.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Magnolia Outskirts, 6:15 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Daylight had broken overhead in the town of Magnolia as the sun had risen over the Fairy Tail guildhall that stood at the edge of town. Far in the opposite direction of Magnolia was the woods where Bernard and his Celestial Spirits had finally managed to get through the thick woods and made it to their location.

"Remind me again... Why we couldn't just have Formosa give us a ride in that weird puddle speed form it has?" Corvus said tiredly as he laid on Vulps backside as he rode the fox while exhausted.

"Because, for the thousandth time I've explained it... It would leave a residue trail one of them could have spotted..." Bernard said as he rubbed his heavy eyes from the lack of sleep.

"Well... At least we finally made it..." Corvus said as he looked around as Vulp and Bernard managed to make it inside the city limits.

Walking around the stone covered streets, Bernard and the spirits looked around at the towns plain and simple architecture before walking over to a lake canal that ran through Magnolia. Putting his hands in the water, Bernard took handfuls and brought them into his face to keep his eyes open with Corvus and Vulp doing a similar action with their wings and paws, respectively.

"Oh god did I need that!" Bernard exclaimed happily as he splashed the water on his face.

"Feels good!" Corvus said with similar enjoyment as Vulp shook off the water. "Alright, now that we finally made it here, lets go see "dummy" and get everything squared away!" He continued as he looked at Vulp and Bernard.

"It's too early in the morning, no one from Fairy Tail will be at their guildhall just yet." Bernard said as he stood up. "I think we should find a hiding hole first. Someplace we can hide from Psycho Circus since they know we are in town." Bernard suggested as he started to move away from the canal.

"Oh that reminds me, been meaning to ask this. Whatcha plan to do with Formosa after we are gone?" Corvus said as Vulp looked at Bernard for his answer.

"Dont know, was thinking of maybe making it go inside a jar or something like the flask we found it in and just put it under a rock somewhere." Bernard said with a plain expression.

"That... Seems like a waste of a powerful Etherious Demon of all things." Corvus said with some confusion with Bernards answer.

"What do you expect me to do with an Etherious Demon of all things?" Bernard said plainly to the crow.

"Something a little more than just "put it under a rock somewhere."' Corvus said, weirded out by Bernards choice.

"Well with your new owner, you can ask if they want a giant slime-mrpgh!" Bernard was talking until his mouth started to feel odd. _"The hell!? What's this weird taste in my mouth?" _Bernard thought as he felt something over his mouth.

"Huh? Kid!? What's wrong!?" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked at Bernard holding an area around his mouth.

"Mregh-mrph! Kglph-faaa…" His eyes rolled into the back of his head as Bernards voice was muffled by the feeling of something numbing his senses until his eyes closed and his shoulders slumped as he fell to the ground.

Looking down at Bernards unconscious body, Corvus and Vulp were so surprised that they had lost sight of someone approaching them from behind. Grabbing both of their heads, the person behind them had grabbed the two Celestial Spirits and slammed their skulls deep into the concrete of the streets.

"Clurg!" Corvus exclaimed in pain as he and Vulp had lost consciousness just like Bernard did.

Laid out on the ground, Marlene had appeared as her body was invisible as she stood behind where Bernard originally stood after knocking him out with a napkin in her hand that had a yellow substance on it. Standing behind where Corvus and Vulp originally were standing was Pietro who had his large belt strung over his right shoulder as the pair stood over the unconscious trio.

"Damn, you guys beat me to the punch!" Said the familiar voice of Anatoli as Marlene and Pietro looked up to see the monkey-faced young man descend down to them on his large ball.

"Glad I made this salve in the woods to knock him out without a struggle..." Marlene said as she looked at the napkin.

"Bet he isn't going to be happy when he wakes up to find you being the one who knocked him out." Anatoli said jokingly to Marlene.

"Oh shut up!" Marlene exclaimed while looking at Anatoli who was sticking his tongue out at her.

"Enough! We must go... I'll take him." Pietro said to stop their bickering as he picked up Bernard and strung him over his left shoulder.

"What about them?" Marlene said as she looked at the Celestial Spirits that were laid next to cracks in the ground.

"...Bring them as well. They are his so he would want them to be with him." Pietro suggested as Marlene and Anatoli picked up Corvus and Vulp, respectively. "Now then..." Pietro said as he turned his head towards Bernard who was over his shoulder. "Let's bring you home, Lil' Bern..."

* * *

**A boring train ride had devolved into an obnoxious nightmare for the group as Bernard and his animal allies have become prey to Psycho Circus, a group Bernard claims to be a dark guild that are after them for an unknown reason. Now out like lights, the gang has been captured by this band of oddly looking wizards that are attempting to bring Bernard "home." What could this mean? Find out next time on Menagerie!**


	12. Chapter 12

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Unknown Cabin, 1:07 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Within the woods of Magnolia was a stone cabin with a small trail of smoke emerging out the chimney. Outside of it was the mustachioed and large man known as Pietro as he put a large block of wood down on a stump before grabbing an axe. Lifting it high over his head, he proceeded to slam it down and split the block in half with ease.

_"A few more blocks of wood should be good... Thank god we found this cabin abandoned." _Pietro thought as he wiped the sweat from his brow as he threw the split blocks into a large pile of similar looking wood. _"Wonder how they are doing in there?" _Pietro thought as he looked at the cabin before walking off into the forest.

Inside the cabin was a small kitchen table and an active fireplace with a bed on the side. Sitting at the table was Marlene who was looking out the window into the forest and Anatoli who had an impatient look on his face while he had his bare feet up on his large yellow googly-eyed ball.

"You sure that salve you made wasn't something poisonous?" Anatoli said as he got tired and turned his faced towards Marlene.

"No, I know the types of herbs and fungi I found were just stuff that could knock someone unconscious. Nothing lethal." Marlene explained as she looked at her monkey-like comrade.

"They have been unconscious for hours!" Anatoli shouted in response as he looked in the corner onto the bed in the cabin.

Laying on the bed with their eyes closed and their bodies completely lethargic were Bernard, Corvus and Vulp with ropes tied around the bodies of the Celestial Spirits.

"They are fine! I checked his breathing, he's normal!" Marlene exclaimed to the skeptical Anatoli.

"Doesn't mean he isn't sick or something with you placing odd mushroom pastes in his mouth to knock him out." Anatoli exclaimed to his chameleon-like ally who had an expression of aggravation form on her face.

"I wouldn't put strange pastes in his mouth if I knew it was going to hurt him!" Marlene said as she stood up from her chair.

"You got a marker or a pen or something?" Anatoli said as he looked at Marlene who made a confused look.

"Uhhhh maybe? Why?" Marlene said as she walked over to a pile of backpacks and proceeded to look around for a drawing utensil. "Oh here's a marker. Now why do you need this?" She said as she walked back over to Anatoli.

'I'm going to do a test." Anatoli said as he grabbed the marker from her hands. "I'm going to draw stuff on his face and if he wakes up from the feeling of stuff on his face, then we know he is kicking." Anatoli said as he stood on his ball and proceeded to roll it over to where Bernard was on the bed. Opening up the marker and inching closer to his face, Anatolis arm was then grasped by Marlene to prevent Anatoli from drawing on Bernard.

"There's is zero chance in hell I am letting you draw on Bernards face! I don't want to see him anymore angry then he already is going to be!" Marlene exclaimed as she tried to pull away Anatoli from the bed, placing him in a full nelson.

"Come on! How angrier could he be?!" Anatoli said as he struggled to get away from Marlenes hold.

"Enough to the point that I don't want him to be!" Marlene shouted as she continued to pull at Anatoli.

"...Mrpugh…" Suddenly, a new voice could be heard that made Marlene and Anatoli stopped fighting and turning their attention back towards the bed. On top of the mattress, Bernard, Corvus and Vulp had started to rustle on the bed and stir awake.

"Guh…" Bernard grunted as he started to sit up as Corvus and Vulp started to shake their heads to get some of their composure. Rubbing his eyes, Bernards line of sight was starting to come back as he looked and saw Marlene and Anatoli staring at him.

"Ugh. Where the heck?" Corvus said as he opened his eyes and looked around at the inside of the cabin before turning his head to Vulp who was looking around just like him. Looking at Bernard, whose eyes were wide, Corvus looked at the visually strange duo who captured them. "Hey, you were the odd people from the train!" He exclaimed.

Ignoring the crows statement, Marlene and Anatoli continued to stare at Bernard who merely looked back at them as they slowly begun to approach the bed the trio were on.

_"Wait! These were the guys Bernard said were from that dark guild?!" _Corvus thought as he attempted to rustle his way out of the rope he was stuck in with Vulp attempting the same as they got closer. With Marlene putting her hands on Bernards shoulders and Anatoli placing his left hand on the top of Bernards head and removing Bernards beanie, Corvus started to fear the worst at what they were about to do.

However, the opposite of what Corvus and Vulp expected had occurred; Marlene stretched her arms around Bernards neck into a hug while Anatoli proceeded to brush Bernards hair with the hand he had placed on the top of his head while also hugging Bernard with his free arm.

"Bernie!" Anatoli exclaimed with a smile on his face as he continued to brush Bernards hair.

"Oh my god! Bernard!" Marlene said with a similarly happy expression as she tightened her hug on Bernard.

"Uhhhhh…" Corvus uttered as he looked at the strange sight next to him as he and Vulp were confused at why their captors were being so friendly to Bernard.

Looking at Bernard, Corvus and Vulp were surprised at the expression he was giving to the pair holding him in an embrace. Unenthusiastic with his eyes half closed, Bernard was staring into space with a look that lacked emotion until he turned his head towards the direction of the door to the cabin.

"It's so good to see you again Bernie!" Anatoli said with exaggerated tears dripping down his face as he pulled himself from the group hug to look at Bernard who was staring at the door.

"I'm so happy you are well! I was so worried the salve I used might have made you go to the other side!" Marlene said as she wiped some snot that was dripping out of her nose as she backed away from Bernard.

"No kidding, I thought we could have just smacked you upside the head but she was the one who wanted to be all "lets not hurt him. I got some herbs and shrooms from the woods that can knock him out" and junk." Anatoli explained as Marlene looked at him with annoyance.

"I already told you! I wouldn't have even made the stupid paste if it would kill him!" Marlene shouted as she turned her attention to Anatoli.

"Hey, at least you're stupid paste worked!" Anatoli said as he looked at Marlene. "It took me a half hour to figure out how tie those ropes, I was worried Bernard was going to wake long before I finished tying them." Anatoli said as he pointed at Corvus and Vulp who were unsure of what they were looking at.

_"Okay, I'm becoming more and more confused. Whoa!" _Corvus thought until he noticed he was being lifted up from the bed. Turning his attention towards Bernard, Corvus noticed he was now carrying him and Vulp in his arms as he continued to look at the door with an apathetic look.

With no hesitation, Bernard, whilst carrying the Celestial Spirits and in the midst of Anatoli and Marlene arguing, rushed to the door to the cabin at a breakneck speed. Kicking the door to quickly get it open, the sound caught the attention of Anatoli and Marlene who turned the door in surprise at what Bernard was doing.

"Bernie!?" Anatoli shouted in shock as he saw Bernard attempting to escape.

"What are you doing?!" Marlene exclaimed loudly as she noticed Bernard trying to run with his Celestial Spirits in tow.

Bernard ran with sweat dripping off his head in an attempt to escape while carrying Corvus and Vulp out the door. However, he only managed to get a few feet as Bernard felt something hitting him right in the neck. With enough force from what hit him in the neck, Bernard proceeded to backflip and lose his grip on Corvus and Vulp who went flying out of his arms.

"Gah!" Bernard exclaimed as he landed on his chest from his flip.

"Blah!" Corvus grunted as he and Vulp landed on the ground. Turning their heads, Corvus and Vulp looked up to see the sight of a large man holding an axe who had his arm outstretched.

"Where do you think you are going? Lil' Bern." Pietro said as he looked at the down Bernard. Grabbing him by the waistline of his pants, Pietro proceeded to bring him back to the cabin. "Marlene, Anatoli. Grab Lil' Berns friends. And grab some rope too while you are at it."

"Y-yes, Pietro!" Anatoli said as he scrambled out the door and grabbed Vulp while Marlene did the same and grabbed Corvus.

Several minutes had passed since Bernard attempted to escape and now Bernard sat on the bed once again with Corvus and Vulp but now, just like them, had a rope tied around his upper body.

"Well that was interesting." Anatoli said as he sat on his ball while looking at Bernard. As he watched Bernard, Marlene had a wet towel in her hands as she proceeded to wipe Bernards face of the dirt that got on it when he hit the ground. At the same time, Pietro was placing the wood he was gathering in the fire place.

"Sorry about the clothesline, Lil' Bern. Had to keep you from running off again." Pietro said as he looked at the fire and poking it with a poker.

"There we go. Nice and clean." Marlene said with a fanged smile as she looked at Bernard who was still showing an apathetic look.

"Uhhh excuse me." Corvus said, catching Marlenes attention. "I hit the dirt too? Can I have a wipe?" Corvus asked, hoping for a positive answer.

"Sure." Marlene said as she moved over to Corvus and proceeded to wipe his beak and body with a wet towel.

"Oh thank you. I felt really dirty." Corvus said as he enjoyed Marlene washing him off.

"So Bernard, how'd you find these little guys?" Marlene asked as she looked at Bernard while still wiping Corvus as Vulp looked at Marlene cleaning Corvus, catching Marlenes attention. "Do you want one too?" Marlene said to Vulp as Vulp proceeded to nod to the chameleon-like girl.

"Well it's kind of a long story." Corvus said as Marlene finished and proceeded to move on to wiping down Vulp.

As Corvus talked to Marlene and while Pietro was messing around with the fire place, Bernard turned his attention to a glass window in the cabin next to the bed he was sitting on. Looking down at his legs, Bernard noticed that his legs weren't tied down.

"Awww, you're a cute little guy." Marlene said as she wiped down Vulps body and brushed his dark blue fur with her hand.

"You know, for people from a dark guild, you seem alright." Corvus said whilst catching the attention of their captors.

"Dark guild?" Anatoli said confused before turning his head towards Pietro who made a similarly confused look.

"Who told you that we were dark wizards?" Marlene said with confusion.

"Oh? That was- Huh?" Corvus was going to say Bernards name until suddenly a large glass shattering sound could be heard that caught everyones attention.

Turning their heads, they noticed Bernards had crashed through the window and was halfway out the cabin until they saw he was stuck on some of the broken glasses from where he smashed through.

"Seriously?! Bernard!" Marlene said as she was shocked at Bernard attempting to escape once again.

"I got this." Anatoli said as he got off his large ball and walked over to pull Bernard out of the window. "Holy crap!" Pulling Bernard back into the cabin, Anatoli noticed a large amount of blood dripping off Bernards head. "Marlene, grab the first aid!" Anatoli shouted as Marlene rushed to grab a first aid kit with Pietro looking at Bernard with a dumbfounded look.

After a few minutes of bandaging Bernards head, Marlene proceeded to grab his beanie and place it back on top of his head and ashen colored hair to hide the gauze. At the same time, the ropes around Corvus and Vulps bodies were removed and placed around Bernards legs to keep him from running once again.

"Okay seriously! That was not cool Bernard!" Anatoli shouted as he tightened the ropes around Bernards legs before turning back towards the table Pietro and Marlene were sitting at, now with Corvus and Vulp sitting on the table.

"Hey uhhh… Thanks for untying us." Corvus said as he turned towards Pietro.

"The ropes were originally because we thought you were going to fight back but I see now that we should have just used all the rope to tie down Bernard if we knew that he was going to be so persistent." Pietro explained.

"Yeah uhhhh. Sorry? I guess?" Corvus replied as he looked at the group.

"It's okay. So what are you guys?" Anatoli said as he looked at Vulp who was laying on the table.

"We are Celestial Spirits, it's kind of a long story but Bernard has been helping us with something these past couple of weeks." Corvus explained.

"Wow Bernard, I didn't know you learned Celestial Spirit magic?" Anatoli said as he turned towards Bernard who was sitting with the same apathetic look with the rope tied around his torso and legs down to the ankles, refusing to speak.

"Well actually no, it's not like a traditional contract with Celestial Spirits, it's kind of weird. We have been living off some of the excess energy from his little heartbeat maker thing while we find an official Celestial Spirit Wizard." Corvus said as he pointed at Bernard as the three looking in surprise.

"What?!" Anatoli screamed in response.

"You both have been taking power out of his pacemaker Lacrima?!" Marlene said in surprise as she looked at Corvus and Vulp who were making equally surprised faces at their reactions.

"Bernard, this is completely irresponsible!" Pietro said as he got up from the table and walked over to Bernard who just apathetically looked away from him. "That thing is keeping you alive, it's incredibly important it has as much power as it can possibly muster to keep you from suffering heart failure." He explained.

Bernard, however, remained silent as he looked at the fireplace.

"Hey, don't be too mad at the guy. When we asked him for the help, we thought this whole thing we asked of him was going to be over by now and it's... Well, here we are now." Corvus said with slight embarrassment as he brushed the back of his head with his wing as Vulp proceeded to look at Bernard. _"Definitely don't want to mention Formosa being inside his Lacrima either..." _The crow thought.

"Doesn't change the fact of what's going to happen when Camilla finds out..." Anatoli said with slight hesitation, prompting Bernards face to change from an apathetic expression to a wide eyed expression filled with fear.

"Oh god, I didn't even think of that... She is going to rampage if she finds out." Marlene said as she put her hand on her forehead with a grim look.

"Who is Camilla?" Corvus asked of Pietro.

"Camilla is one of us. And certainly one you don't want to make an enemy of..." Pietro said in response as he turned towards Corvus.

"Actually, that's another question; who are you guys?" Corvus said, catching the attention of the group.

"Oh right, we never really introduced ourselves." Anatoli said as he looked at Pietro and Marlene. "My name is Anatoli Sokolov." Anatoli said, formally introducing himself.

"I am Marlene Jami." Marlene said as she looked at the Celestial Spirits.

"Pietro Garland." Pietro said.

"We are wizards from a guild called Psycho Circus." Anatoli said as he pointed at the clown shaped guild logo on his bare chest with Marlene and Pietro showing them their logos on her hand and on his elbow, respectively.

"...Can I have some water?" Bernard said, finally speaking up and catching everyone off guard.

"About time you spoke to us Bernie!" Anatoli said as he made a grin at Bernard finally talking.

After finally seeing Bernard open his mouth, Marlene proceeded to walk over to the backpacks once again and pulled out a water bottle, taking it to Bernard.

"Here you go." Marlene said as she stuck the bottle inside Bernards mouth to help him drink it up. Filling his mouth up with water, Bernard now had his cheeks filled to the brink. "Bernard?" Marlene said confused as the others looked at him with raised eyebrows.

To the surprise of everyone, Bernard proceeded to spit the water out at the fireplace and dowsed a large amount of the fire that was burning on the logs. In the midst of the confusion, Bernard proceeded to stand up and shimmied his way over to the fire place and attempted to slide up the chimney as the others looked in shock at Bernard attempting to escape again.

"Really?!" Anatoli shouted in angry confusion as Bernard struggled to slide up the chimney while he was still tied up.

"Kid!?" Corvus said in surprise as he looked at Bernard still trying to run away.

"Okay, that does it! Anatoli, get a gag for his mouth!" Pietro shouted as he and Marlene pulled Bernard out of the chimney and dragged him back towards the bed. As they placed Bernard back on the bed, Anatoli approached on his ball and proceeded to wrap a bandanna around Bernards mouth. "Damn it Bernard! Stop acting like such a brat!"

"Is the gagging really necessary?" Corvus asked as Vulp jumped off the table and approached the bed Bernard was on as Bernard was violently shaking and jumping around on the bed as Pietro tightened the rope.

"I didn't want to but he's leaving us with no choice. He keeps acting like a dumbass." Pietro said as he finished tightening.

"How do you guys know Bernard?" Corvus asked.

"You don't know?" Marlene said with a raised eyebrow as she looked at the crow who proceeded to shake his head left and right to signify a no. "Damn it! Bernard! You seriously told them we were in a dark guild first and didn't bother to tell them the truth?!" She exclaimed angry at Bernard, who was still trying to get out of the rope.

"Truth about what?" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked at Bernard.

Walking over to Bernard, Marlene proceeded to grab Bernards right shoe and removed it from his foot. Following the shoe, she took the sock off to reveal a logo on the bottom of Bernards right foot that caused Corvus and Vulp to look at him with surprise. At the bottom of his foot was a purple clown shaped logo that matched that of the ones Pietro, Anatoli and Marlene had on their bodies.

"Wow, can't believe you didn't get it removed after all this time." Anatoli said as he looked at Bernards foot.

"That's the same logo you guys have!" Corvus exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, it is." Pietro said, catching the attention of the Celestial Spirits. "Because he is a member of the Psycho Circus guild."

"...What?!" Corvus said with no clear idea how to process this information.

"This is the reason we captured you guys. We are trying to bring him home to the guild. We've been worried sick for two whole years while he apparently has been hiding from us." Marlene explained.

"...Well... I guess that explains why you always slept with your socks on." Corvus said to Bernard who stopped struggling for a few seconds with a disgruntled look in his eyes.

After stopping his wild attempt to escape the ropes, Anatoli proceeded to lift up his googly-eyed ball and proceeded to slam it into Bernards back, causing Bernard to wince in annoyed pain.

"Where the hell were you this entire time?" Anatoli said to Bernard after slamming his ball into Bernards back.

"We met Bernard in Hargeon." Corvus admitted as Pietro, Marlene and Anatoli made annoyed expressions.

"Really?! Camilla was in Hargeon a bunch of times over the years and you didn't even try to see her?!" Marlene screamed as she was now becoming angry with Bernard.

"Camilla is that hot brunette from the train right?" Corvus said as he caught the attention of the angry Psycho Circus wizards.

"Yes, she is out right now, still searching for this one." Anatoli said as he pointed at Bernard.

"Well you caught the three of us. When is she coming back?" Corvus asked as Bernard turned his attention to Vulp who was looking at him.

"We wanted to try and see if we could talk him into coming back willingly so that way, Camilla might not break every single bone in his body." Pietro explained.

After saying that, Bernard motioned to Vulp to come closer to him. Raising his head up to where Bernard was, he put his ear closer to Bernard could potentially whisper to him.

"Plmhpse, untif meph." Bernard whispered while muffled to try and say; "please, untie me."

Vulp, in response, proceeded to look at the wizards as Corvus continued to talk to them, noticing how distracted they were. Vulp then looked at Bernard to notice how serious his eyes were and how much he wanted to leave. Nodding to show a sign of cooperation, Vulp proceeded to raise his one of his claws and started to pick at Bernards ropes to help him.

As Vulp cut into the ropes, Corvus noticed what Vulp was doing and proceeded to swallow spit at the potentiality of making the situation worse.

_"I'm not happy about the kid keeping secrets... But if what they are saying about him getting killed by this hot chick, it doesn't do me or Vulp any good. Maybe I should help." _Corvus thought as he turned his attention back towards the Psycho Circus wizards. "So uhhhh, you guys know Bernard? For how long?" The crow said as he got the groups attention.

"I've known Bernard and these two since they were in diapers." Pietro said as he looked at Anatoli and Marlene.

"Me, Marlene and Camilla are the same age as Bernard so we have been hanging out since we were kids. We are practically his family." Anatoli said as he sat on his ball while looking at the crow. "Meanwhile, this guys always been old. Hehe." Anatoli said while pointing at Pietro who made a disgruntled look from the obnoxious comment his monkey-faced comrade made.

"Fascinating..." Corvus said as he continued to distract the group.

With the ropes quietly ripping open, Bernard was freed from his restraints on his torso and proceeded to push the ropes off of his legs and putting his shoe back on that revealed his guild mark. Quietly removing the mouth gag, Bernard attempted to tip toe towards the door with Vulp quietly following behind him.

"So! Uhhhh, how did you get eyes like those?!" Corvus said as he looked at Marlene.

"My... Eyes..." As she said that, Marlenes started to swell up with tears.

"Be thankful he didn't mention your snake fangs." Anatoli said jokingly causing Marlene to become even more depressed and beginning to cry.

"I can't help the way I look! The snake fangs and the odd eyes and these skin blotches I have all over have kept me from even having a decent relationship with a boy since I was a teen!" Marlene said as she put her hands over her eyes.

"Calm down, Marlene. Physical appearances aren't everything." Pietro said in an attempt to comfort her.

"You try looking like a snake and chameleon hybrid your whole life and see how you like it when people are put off!" Marlene exclaimed angrily in retaliation.

Reaching the door, Bernard quietly opened the door and proceeded to exit with Vulp following, closing the door behind them to make it appear as if the door was closed the whole time. Noticing they managed to leave, Corvus proceeded to speak up.

"You mind if I take a dump outside? I ate a hot pepper the other day that turned my stomach inside out and could really use the time to push out a load." Corvus said, partially lying to the wizards.

"Sure, go ahead, the door is unlocked." Pietro said as he continued to try and comfort Marlene who was kneeling on the ground depressed now.

Corvus proceeded to flap his wings into the air and used his talons to open the door, exiting the cabin.

"Now that the conversations over, we should probably ask Bernard about the situation back at home." Anatoli said as he looked at Pietro and Marlene, not noticing Bernard left the cabin.

"Agreed, the more we know in advance, the less we have to worry about Camilla wanting to chop his- Huh?!" Pietro said until he turned towards the direction of the bed and noticed the suspicious lack of a certain beanie wearing friend and prisoner of theirs. "He escaped!" Pietro exclaimed as Marlene and Anatoli turned their heads to noticed Bernards disappearance.

"Bernard! Really!" Marlene loudly shouted as she was flabbergasted by Bernards latest escape.

"He can't even still for five whole minutes to let us explain a damn thing!" Anatoli exclaimed in similar shock.

"The ropes were cut. It must have been his pet fox... Which means the bird was distracting us." Pietro said as he held the rope in his hands.

"And I thought we were making progress!" Anatoli said aggravated.

Rushing to the door, the trio left the cabin and proceeded to look outside in hopes of finding a hint of a trail leading them to Bernard.

"Bernard! Come back!" Marlene shouted in hopes of getting him to reveal himself.

"Bernie! Don't go in the woods! It's dangerous right now!" Anatoli shouted while standing on his ball.

"Grrr… We have to split up and find him." Pietro said as he rushed back into the cabin and grabbed his wrestling championship-like belt. "Because if we don't... Camilla will..." He continued as Anatoli and Marlene rushed off in different directions.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Magnolia Forest, 6:17 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Nightfall had swept over the forest near Magnolia as the sun went down. Whilst in the forest, the members of Psycho Circus, armed with lanterns, attempted to find their escaped comrade once more before the matter at hand became even more dire.

"Bernard!" Anatoli shouted as he floated above the many rows of trees, unable to see any sign of Bernard or his Celestial Spirit allies.

"Please come out!" Marlene shouted from one side of the forest as she held up her lantern in an attempt to see any traces of Bernard.

Congregating back to together in a small area of the woods, Pietro, Marlene and Anatoli proceeded to look at eachother with unsatisfied looks.

"Anything?" Pietro asked of his friends while holding a lantern.

"Nothing!" Anatoli said angrily. "I always hated the fact he was so thorough about things! I couldn't find a trace of a trail or anything! And he knows I can fly so he is obviously not making too much noise." He continued.

"Well he can't be back in Magnolia. We were too deep in the woods when we found that cabin so he has to be lost at this point." Marlene explained.

"Either way, we can't give up the search. Not when we finally found him after all this time." Pietro said to the group to remind the two of the situation.

'"Right."' Anatoli and Marlene said in unison as the trio split back up to go look for Bernard with Pietro and Marlene walking off in different directions while Anatoli brushed by the trees while flying on his ball.

After dispersing, unknown to them, a certain person they were looking for had been hiding underneath a large pile of leaves that were nearby. Sitting up and brushing off the foliage from his body, Bernard looked around for the Psycho Circus members to see if they were nearby.

_"Good... Coast is clear..."_ Bernard thought as he breathed a sigh of relief. As he took that breath, light particles emerged from his chest with Corvus and Vulp reforming after being inside his Lacrima.

"Everything good? They gone?" Corvus asked as Vulp looked around.

"Looks like it... For now..." Bernard said as he stood up. "Let's get a move on, we need to figure out a way to Mag- Huh?" He continued talking until he was cut off by Corvus flapping up to meet him at eye level and Vulp standing in front of him with suspicious looks on their faces. "...What?"

"You know "what." We are talking about this now because we might not get a "later."' Corvus said with a serious expression.

"I don't want to talk about it." Bernard said with an annoyed look on his face as he proceeded to try and move around Corvus and Vulp who stopped him again.

"I'm not asking for the whole story kid, I just want some facts!" Corvus exclaimed loudly as Bernard turned towards him.

"Don't talk so loudly! She'll- I mean, they'll hear you." Bernard said whilst correcting himself.

"Let me guess? The hot chick with the nice rack?" Corvus said as Bernard was getting increasingly more agitated with that description of Camilla.

"Don't call her "hot chick!" She has a name!" Bernard said with anger in his voice.

"Fine then just tell us what we want to know! You owe us that much!" Corvus said in retaliation as Bernard proceeded to grit his teeth in frustration before letting loose a defeated sigh.

"... Two years ago, I ran away from home. I have been living in Hargeon that entire time working at a crap menial job and side work while I was in hiding. I'm trying to avoid getting caught by them." Bernard explained aggravated.

"From your own guild. I get it, but why?" Corvus said, still curious. "Does that have something to do with it?" Corvus said as he pointed one of the talons on his feet at Bernards heart.

"...Sorta..." Bernard said annoyed as he closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands out of frustration as he proceeded to walk into the woods with Corvus and Vulp following him.

"Ok after meeting monkey boy, chameleon girl and Mr. Moustache, they seem like they're your friends so why exactly are you running from them?" Corvus said, still having unanswered questions.

"Because they are trying to bring me home and I do not want to go home." Bernard as he looked around while walking and passing by trees.

"Okay, then what about this Camilla girl? Why does she want to headbutt you into a paste?" Corvus continued asking questions.

"That's... Slightly unrelated to what we are dealing with right now." Bernard said as he looked over past some trees to find the road back into Magnolia. "Finally! We found the road!" He exclaimed with slight joy.

"She can't be that powerful to the point we should run. We have the numbers advantage in a fight with her. Plus we got Formosa too." Corvus said as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits had begun to walk the trail while hoping to not get caught.

"No, I am not calling out Formosa to fight her and we are not going to try and fight her either because we will lose. Trust me, I know." Bernard said with serious eyes. "And yes, she is that powerful so we need to keep going." He continued.

"Jeez really? Can't you come up with a plan for something like when we fought blood guy?" Corvus said as he and Vulp had an expression of concern forming on their faces.

"I could... But then again, I'd rather just stick what we were originally coming to Magnolia to do. Get you back home and then I find a rock to hide under and die happy!" Bernard said as he walked with his head turned towards the Celestial Spirits. "Then I'll find something for Formosa and then- Guh!" Bernard continued to speak until he felt his face knock against something.

Looking forward, Bernard felt a flat invisible surface blocking the road. As he touched it, the invisible surface started to appear before the trio as they saw a yellow see-through panel prevented them from moving the direction they were going. Looking upward, the trio noticed more paneling had begun to appear as they saw a large yellow see-through box-like shape begin to form a mile back from where they stopped.

"The heck is this thing?" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked around at the box they were in until they noticed Bernard shivering in terror as he had his hands on the wall. "Kid?" Corvus said with concern as he and Vulp looked at Bernard.

"...We're doomed..." Bernard said with tears in his eyes and a defeated look on his face as he continued to look past the see-through wall.

Suddenly, footsteps began to be heard by the trio as they looked back at the other side of the box they were in to notice someone approaching them. Hands glowing yellow, a familiar face to Bernard had appeared with eyes full of contempt.

"...C-Camilla..." Bernard said with fear in his voice as he looked at the person approaching them.

She stood at the same height as Bernard with long beautiful brown hair flowing down her backside and sporting a red tank top, blue jean-like shorts and a grey jacket wrapped around her waist with brown boots. Despite her physical beauty, the face she was making was filled with so much rage that it could cause anybody to be racked with fear. It was Camilla who was staring down Bernard as he backed up towards the wall on fearful reflex.

"Whoa..." Corvus said, catching Bernard and Vulps attention. "Even angry, she's freaking gorgeous." He said catching Bernard off guard at the sudden perversity of his comment.

"Now is not the time for lechery! She is going to kill me!" Bernard screamed at Corvus.

"Oh uh! Right! Sorry!" Corvus said in apology as he made a serious face towards Camilla with Vulp preparing to assist.

"No, don't!" Bernard screamed as Corvus and Vulp proceeded to rush at Camilla at full speed.

As they approached her, Camilla raised her yellow energy covered hands and a set of yellow energy orbs covered over them. Cocking back her fists, she proceeded to punch Corvus and Vulp right in their faces with enough force that they begun to fly backwards.

"Gah!" Corvus exclaimed in pain as he and Vulp were flung back in Bernards direction and slamming against the yellow wall he was standing in front of. _"Wh-What the hell? She's so fast! And a single hit did that much damage?!" _Corvus thought as he and Vulp hit the ground after smacking against the wall.

"Don't hurt them!" Bernard said to Camilla as she continued to slowly walk towards Bernard as he slightly shielded the two Celestial Spirits behind him.

"Like you have any right to tell me what to do!" Camilla exclaimed with fury in her voice as Bernard backed away in shock at the amount of rage in her tone.

"I- Uh.. Um..." Bernard stuttered in fear as he started to back away from Camilla in the direction of the woods. Suddenly, the barrier preventing him from moving had disappeared as he was now with his back against a tree as Camilla closed the gap between herself and him.

"Close your eyes..." Camilla said to Bernard who was scared out of his mind as he looked at the angry young woman before him.

"Please... Be gentle..." Bernard said as he closed his eyes, following Camilla's order.

With one of her hands covered in an orb, Camilla had formed a fist and proceeded to cock back her arm once again. Full speed and with great strength, she punched Bernard right against the bridge of his nose and slammed the back of his head against the tree he was standing in front of. With the raw power she used, the tree behind Bernard had become loose at the roots and fell back behind Bernard and knocking into other trees, causing them to fall into others like dominos.

His arms slumping and his eyes rolling into the back of his head with blood gushing from his nose. Bernard lost consciousness and landed in a seating position on the ground as Camilla stood over him with the orbs disappearing from her hands as she looked down at him.

"You son of a bitch..." Camilla said to herself as she turned away from Bernard and walked back to the road.

Suddenly, out from the woods after hearing the noise was the group of Pietro, Anatoli and Marlene who looked to see the damage that had been caused.

"Holy cow..." Pietro said with surprise as he saw Camilla walk over to the group.

"Oh uh! Hey Camilla! Fancy meeting you here!" Anatoli said joking hesitantly.

"Shut up Anatoli..." Camilla said with an unhappy look in her face.

"...Okay..." Anatoli said while lowering his head, trying not to further aggravate her.

"Marlene, grab the two pet things. Pietro, you grab the scumbag over there." Camilla said as she walked away from the trio.

"Where are you going?" Marlene asked as Camilla walked away.

"I got us a cart and a cage in town... I'm bringing it over and then we are heading back to Hemlock as soon as possible." Camilla said as she looked at the Psycho Circus wizards before turning her attention back to the unconscious Bernard. _"Asshole bastard..." _She thought as she walked away.

"Uhhh… Pietro?" Anatoli said as he and Marlene walked over to Corvus and Vulp who reeling in pain on the ground.

"Yeah?" Pietro responded as he carefully lifted up Bernard.

"Remind me next time I challenge Camilla to become an S-Class wizard like she is, not to do it on a day she is in a foul mood." Anatoli said nervously as he looked in the direction Camilla went while picking up Corvus.

"I'll warn you too..." Marlene said as she picked up Vulp. "Let's go home..." Marlene said as the group walked away carrying the trio of Bernard, Corvus and Vulp.

* * *

**Can't we all just get along? Guess not after seeing the angry Camilla knock the lights out of Bernard. With his Celestial Spirit allies in tow and their limp bodies to be taken to the town of Hemlock and the Psycho Circus guild. What's next for Bernard now that his old friends have captured him and are heading back home. And what of the reason he left in the first place to go into hiding? We may soon find out, next time! On Menagerie!**


	13. Chapter 13

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hemlock, 7:17 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Along the roads was a cart with a set of horses pulling it with the driver being Pietro who had the straps to control the horses in his hands. Riding shotgun next to him was Marlene who had turned her head back towards the carriage area of their cart.

"How you both doing back there?" Marlene asked as she looked at Anatoli, who was standing on his ball in the back while the cart was in still in motion, and Camilla, who was sitting in a seat in the back.

"I'll be happier when we are home- whoa!" Anatoli said as he struggled to maintain his balance on his ball as the cart moved. "Can you maybe drive more smoothly?!" Anatoli complained.

"I can't control how the roads work Anatoli." Pietro stated to the frustrated Anatoli as he continued to drive the cart.

"How about you?" Marlene asked as she turned her attention towards Camilla.

"Huh?" Camilla said as she was spacing out. "Oh I am fine..." Camilla said disgruntled as she turned towards Marlene to answer.

"You sure you don't want to take a break? You have been staring at it for hours." Marlene said with concern.

"No, someone has to keep an eye on it..." Camilla said as she turned her attention back to where she was looking before.

In the back of the carriage was a cage with a tarp over it. In addition to the tarp, a yellow box-like barrier stood around the cage as if to provide extra protection to prevent what was inside of it to keep it from escaping.

"Well we could take turns you know? Besides, I don't think the barrier and the tarp are necessary, he knows where we are taking him." Marlene said, offering assistance.

"You remember what the master said... He said; "don't spoil the surprise for him when he gets home."' Camilla said as she continued to stare with a disgruntled look in her eyes as she stared at the box.

"Leave her be Marlene..." Pietro said as he grabbed Marlenes attention. "She has the strength to maintain her Barrier Magic for as long as she wants, no need to worry." Pietro said in a reassuring tone.

"I don't think her magical power is what she is concerned about." Anatoli whispered as he approached where Marlene and Pietro were sitting in the front of the carriage. "I think she is more worried about what Camilla is thinking of doing when we get home with them." Anatoli continued to whisper.

"This carriage isn't that big, I can hear you guys, you know?" Camilla said, causing Anatoli to shiver in embarrassment.

"Hehe... Sorry." Anatoli apologized as Camilla continued to stare at the cage.

Meanwhile, inside the cage, a certain trio of captives were arguing.

"Hey! Let us out already!" Corvus screamed while chains were wrapped around his body.

"Will you stop shouting?! It's not going to work!" Bernard yelled with shackles around his wrists and a pair of tissues up his nose at the crow to get him to stop screaming as Vulp laid on the floor of the cage while also in chains.

"If I could use my lightning, I could blast this thing apart. Or Vulp can slice it up or you could get Formosa out here and grow to the point the cage bursts!" Corvus said as he shouted suggestions at Bernard.

"And as I said earlier; bad idea! There's a barrier around the cage Camilla constructed to prevent us from getting out if we managed to get out of this thing! And it's even soundproof so we can't call for help!" Bernard explained angrily.

"Damn it! Ugh... God, my head hurts." Corvus said as he calmed down from the pain making him feel exhausted. "That chick packs a punch."

"That was her using her magic... Camilla knows Barrier Magic, that's what stopped us near Magnolia and her favorite technique is putting barriers around her fists so it increases her punching power." Bernard explained while taking the blood soaked tissues out of his nose.

"Would have been helpful if you mentioned that earlier before she knocked us into next week..." Corvus complained. "Anyway, how's your face?"

"...Better than my conscience..." Bernard said as he sullenly looked down at the ground.

"You know, you could have mentioned something back on the train when I saw your friends the first time. This wild chase we were doing only made things worse." Corvus said with some irritation in his tone as he looked at Bernard.

"I know alright..." Bernard said with depression in his voice.

"Hey... Don't start acting all sad on me now, you know I am only just complaining." Corvus said as he tried to cheer up Bernard as Vulp looked at Bernard with a concerned expression.

"Don't try to make me feel better, I'm in no mood for it... Especially because I know where we are going and it's the last place in Fiore I want to be..." Bernard said as he looked straight in the direction the carriage was moving. _"I know she is looking at me right now..." _Bernard thought.

"Psycho Circus guildhall?" Corvus questioned.

"Yup..." Bernard answered. "In the town of Hemlock, just beneath the Cayman Rock mountains. It's where I and most of the guild members grew up." He continued.

"What's it like?" Corvus said curious as Vulp listened as well.

"It's a small business town, people come from other places to go shopping there with most of businesses buildings there doubling as homes for the people who run them." Bernard explained. "People either live in the places they work in the housing space above the business itself or they leave to their homes somewhere else and come to Hemlock for work the next time they open up." He continued.

"Huh. What's the town like compared to Hargeon, Crocus and Magnolia?" Corvus continued questioning.

"It's somewhat smaller than those places. It's nowhere near as beautiful either, a lot of the landscape is sidewalks and roads and most of the shops are brick homes in case of weather problems so the buildings aren't easily destroyable. It's all above a lake that runs through the town as well called "Nereid Lake."' Bernard said, explaining how the town looked.

"Sounds like a cozy place to live... Still not sure as to why you ran away from it and your friends and family." Corvus said as he looked at Bernard with suspicion.

"It's... Not easy to talk about..." Bernard said as he looked away from the Celestial Spirits.

"Well whatever you did, it managed to piss her off to the point she practically broke your face." Corvus said as he looked in the direction of where the cart was going, presumably in the same direction as where Camilla was sitting.

"...Yeah..." Bernard said sullenly as he looked in the same direction.

"Hey, hang on. Back in Hargeon, you said you weren't a wizard. Then how are you a part of a wizards guild with the logo and everything?" Corvus asked out of curiosity.

"Not all guilds have exclusively wizards in them, there are other guilds with members who don't have access to magic with the logos on their bodies." Bernard explained.

"Well if that's true and you still aren't a wizard... Why was it such a big deal they searched for you all this time?" Corvus asked but Bernard remained silent after making a deep sigh.

"It's- whoa!" Bernard was going to speak until suddenly, the cart stopped moving. "Guess we are here..." Bernard said as he swallowed spit in his mouth.

"What should we expect..." Corvus said nervously as he and Vulp mentally prepared themselves.

"The worst..." Bernard said with a twitch in his eye.

As they sat in the cage, they noticed sounds again, signifying the barrier that was soundproofing the cage was no longer active. Whilst still sitting, the trio of Bernard and the Celestial Spirits soon found that the cage they were sitting in was being lifted up and out of the carriage.

_"And there is Pietro's Max Muscle Magic in effect..."_ Bernard thought as he guessed at who managed to lift the up the cage.

"Okay! Everyone, shut the lights!" Said the voice of Anatoli as Bernard, Corvus and Vulp were now sitting in pitch black darkness underneath the tarp that concealed the cage they were in.

While sitting still in the cage, the trio noticed that the tarp and the metal barred portion over the base had been lifted off and removed. Sitting in the darkness, Corvus and Vulp worried over the possibilities of the unknown place they were in and what could happen. Bernard, on the other hand, knew what was going to happen and merely made a face full of cringe.

As the lights came on, a series of loud popping noises similar to those done by confetti poppers could be heard that startled the trio as confetti, streamers and balloons descended from the ceiling onto the floor around them. Looking around, Corvus and Vulp proceeded to survey their new surroundings.

Inside, the Celestial Spirits noted they were inside a large red and yellow striped circus tent with multiple wooden support beams propping up the massive structure. Wooden benches spread all over and a bar with a variety of liquor bottles adorning it as well as a noticeable banner strung over it that read; "WELCOME HOME BERNARD!" in big bold letters. The place gave off a surprisingly welcome air until Corvus and Vulp turned their attention to the large group of people standing around them and Bernard.

Aside from Anatoli, Marlene and Pietro, surrounding Bernard and the Celestial Spirits were an assortment of various men and women in different colored outfits that were similar to acrobat leotards and clown-like uniforms. Approaching the trio was an incredibly large woman wearing a white and pink dress and black shoes with blackish brown curly hair that stopped at her shoulders but her large frame was not her most noticeable feature, for it was her massive brown beard that had had reached all the way to floor that shocked Corvus and Vulp.

"Well, if it isn't Lil' Bernie. Come here!" The large woman said as her beard suddenly started to move on its own. Like a tendril, her beard hair looped around Bernards upper body and pulled him into the arms of the large woman. "Give old Harriet a hug, you little runaway!" The large woman named Harriet said as she squeezed Bernards body, a look of pain and annoyance forming on his face as he started to turn slightly blue from the lack of oxygen.

"Calm down sister, the boy has had a long ride back home. Let him enjoy his coming home party." Pietro said to his sister, Harriet as she continued to crush Bernard with her arms in an embrace.

Letting go of Bernard, Harriet proceeded to let him loose into the crowd of acrobats and clowns, the group proceeded to lift Bernard high over their heads with their arms.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Put me down already!" Bernard complained as the crowd ignored him and proceeded to throw him in the air and catch him on repeat, signifying their happiness to see him once again.

"Wel-come back! Wel-come back! Wel-come back!" The crowd chanted as they continued to toss Bernard around as he continued to have an angry look on his face.

"Hey Vulp... You got any idea what's going on?" Corvus said to Vulp who was as equally confused as he was.

"He so isn't enjoying it." Anatoli said with a smirk on his face as he moved to one of the benches to sit down.

"Yeah but he'll come around soon enough." Pietro said as he approached Anatoli and Marlene who were both sitting down.

"Wonder what's going to happen once the master shows up." Marlene said as suddenly, a horn-like noise sounded off from above the rafters of the big top. "Oh, speak of the devil." Marlene said as she, Anatoli and Pietro looked up.

As the horn went off, the crowd proceeded to let down the still shackled Bernard as he, the Celestial Spirits and the crowd all looked up. A green magic circle had appeared as a roller coaster-like series of green open cars had emerged with a single passenger in the front, flying above the guildhall. Coming in for a landing, the roller coaster cars snaked around through the guildhall and stopped, almost as if to make a grandiose entrance.

Stepping off the flying roller coaster was a small man in a brown and green tail coat with a top hat, black pants, white gloves, black dress shoes and a smirk on his face. His body proportions were the most visually distinct thing about him as the shape of his form was that of a bowling pin with his small body having a large frame around the torso and base but a small head on his curved shoulders. Removing his top hat, revealing his balding head that had small amounts of ashen colored hair still hanging off the sides, he took a bow in front of everyone. As he did his grand entrance, Corvus and Vulp merely became more and more confused as Bernard looked at the small man with a look of sheer aggravation.

"Sorry for being fashionably late everyone! I had to wash my hair!" The small and odd man said with a voice that was a combination of elegant and yet comical.

"You don't have much left!" Anatoli heckled at the small mans bad joke.

"Says the monkey man who doesn't have any chest hair." Marlene said in response, causing Anatoli to look at her with annoyance.

"We are back, Master Barnum." Pietro said as he got the attention of the small man who was the guild master of Psycho Circus, Master Barnum.

"Ah yes! I can see that you are here Pietro! Unless you aren't Pietro, in that case, who are you?! Hehe." Master Barnum once again badly joked. "You on the other hand... I recognize completely." Master Barnum said as he turned towards Bernard in the midst of the crowd as the beanie-sporting young man looked at Master Barnum with a twitch in his eye. "You might want to get that twitch looked at, you don't need a Lacrima for that too, don'tcha? Hahaha!" He continued to badly joke.

_"This guys jokes are horrible..." _Corvus thought as he and Vulp were astonished at the level of poor humor the guild master was performing at.

"Don't worry." Marlene whispered as she approached the Celestial Spirits. "He does these kinds of bad jokes all the time..." She said with an embarrassed smile.

"The guys sense of humor is more extinct than dead animals..." Anatoli said to the Celestial Spirits.

"Here, let me help with that twitch." Master Barnum said to Bernard as he reached into the pocket of his petticoat and pulled out a small flower, prompting Bernard to make a face of surprise and terror. "Take a whiff!" He joked as suddenly, a magic circle appeared in front of the flower and rushing out of it was a large torrent of water, barreling into Bernard at with high amounts of pressure like a fire hose.

The large blast of water hitting Bernard in the face had caused the shackled young man to go flying backwards and knocking into Corvus and Vulp as they got dowsed with heavy water pressure as well. Landing close to the front door of the big top guildhall.

"Too much?" Master Barnum joked as the guild members looked at Bernard and his Celestial Spirit allies were laid out covered in water.

As they sat back up, the trio looked at Master Barnum with aggravation, annoyed by his poor brand of comedy and the fact they were soaked. Turning around, they noticed the exit to the guild was right them.

_"Not much me or Vulp can do in these chains but the kid wouldn't just leave us behind to- Hey?!" _Corvus thought as he looked at the door until he suddenly noticed Bernard try to run off towards the exit with the shackles still around his wrists with Corvus and Vulp shocked at him attempting to escape again and leaving them behind.

As he reached the exit, however, a yellow barrier wall appeared once again to prevent from running through as he smashed his face against the flat and hard surface, causing him to fall backwards and land on his back. Looking upwards, he noticed a familiar face standing over him with an angry look in her eyes; Camilla.

"I figured you would try and book it..." Camilla said with a hateful look directed at Bernard on the ground.

_"Damn it! I should have known she was waiting for me to do that... I thought she went to the bar while the lights were off..." _Bernard thought at his defeat.

"Running off so soon from your own party Bernard?" Harriet said as she walked up to the downed Bernard. "Come on! We missed two whole birthday parties for you because you weren't here." She said with a smirk as Pietro, Anatoli and Marlene approached.

"She's right! Come on! Let's get drunk and enjoy three whole parties at once!" Anatoli said as he pointed a liquor bottle in the downed Bernards face.

"It wouldn't hurt for you to smile you know?" Marlene said with some concern for the annoyed Bernard.

"He isn't partying tonight." Camilla said, catching the guildmembers attention. "You all can have fun, I am taking this scumbag somewhere else." She said as she pulled him by the chains on his shackles. "I'll take them with me too." She said as she pointed at Corvus and Vulp who were looking at her with faces full of worry.

"Oh come on! It's his welcome back party!" Anatoli said, hoping to convince Camilla.

"No. This is something I'll be handling personally..." Camilla said as she directed a glare at Bernard as she walked over to pick up Corvus and Vulp and forced them into Bernards arms to hold them. Walking over to Master Barnum she whispered something in his ear as he continued to smirk while looking at Bernard.

"Very well. Enjoy the night, Ms. Hagen." Master Barnum said as he waved Camilla off whilst referring to her by her last name. "Everyone! Let's get plastered for welcoming back our good friend Bernard and his animal friends!" Master Barnum exclaimed loudly as he pointed at the air with the guild members cheering in celebration.

Pulling Bernard by the chains, Camilla pulled him, Corvus and Vulp out of the big top and in the direction of a patch of woods next to the big top. Walking into the woods, the group walked over to a small yellow and red striped tent that was propped up in the center of the small patch of forest next to the Psycho Circus guildhall with a water pump and hose next to it and some unknown large object covered by a tarp next to the tent. Looking at the unknown object, the trio of Bernard and the Celestial Spirits had noticed a set of wheels underneath the tarp as Camilla pulled them into the tent.

Inside the tent, while appearing small on the outside, the inside was a completely different story. Unlike a normal tent, the inside appeared like that of a well lit small apartment. White walls adorned the edges of the rather large room with a nice hardwood floor. One side had a series of cabinets next to a stovetop with a refrigerator that had ice Lacrima gemstones lodged in it. The other side had a clothes dresser next to a folding screen that could be used for changing clothes behind. Another side of the room had two doors with one reading "closet" on it with a sign and the other reading "bathroom." Lastly, in the center, was a small table with a set of chairs and next to it was a mattress laid on the ground for someone to sleep on.

"Whoa, this place is huge compared to how it looks on the outside." Corvus said in Bernards arms as Camilla pulled them to a side of the room.

_"Nice to know this place is still the same..." _Bernard thought as he was pulled over to one of the walls.

Kicking Bernard in the back of his leg to prop him down to his knees and pulling out Corvus and Vulp from his arms and leaving them at his sides, Camilla put the chain on the floor and proceeded to hold her hand up over it. As she held it over the chain, a yellow box appeared over the chain that proceeded to bolt it into the floor with heavy pressure, preventing Bernard from moving himself out of his kneeling position.

"Uhhh… Nice place you have here?" Corvus said as he and Vulp shifted themselves to be more comfortable in their chains. Camilla, however, proceeded to not answer as she stood up and walked over to the fridge in the room. "Hey kid, how is this room so big when it looks tiny on the outside?" The crow questioned.

"The guild master made it like this... Remember that roller coaster car he came in on back in the guildhall? That's a part of it... He knows a form of space manipulation magic called "Carnival Tricks Magic." It allows him to conjure up stuff you'd find in a carnival or circus setting like these tents and manipulate it to his wishes. So he made this tent and made it a more livable space on the inside." Bernard explained.

After he finished talking, the group looked over to notice Camilla walk over with a chair from the table and a beer bottle in her hand as she proceeded to sit down on the chair and folded her arms and crossed her legs while looking down at Bernard with the same disgruntled look in her eyes.

"...No drink for me I'm guessing?" Bernard said, attempting to lighten the mood as Camilla started to rub the area between eyes to calm her nerves before putting the bottle down on the floor and pulling out a book. Specifically, a recent issue of Sorcerer Weekly with a certain familiar face on the cover from a recent incident in Crocus.

"Care to explain?" Camilla said with an angry look in her eyes as she held the book up to Bernards face.

"Well... Uhhhh…" Bernard muttered nervously as he looked away.

"For a guy with a problematic heart who thinks it's okay to avoid friends and family for over two years, you'd think you would do a much better job with staying incognito but I guess you have gotten dumber in this span of time." Camilla stated as she squinted her eyes and made a critical comment about Bernard.

"Hey! That situation we were in was a life and death situation and a very long day!" Bernard said as he turned his head to look at Camilla.

"And yet you decided not to get any help from completely capable members of a certain guild you were affiliated with who were more than willing to help and instead risked your life playing a "hero."' Camilla said as she pulled the book back towards her and proceeded to point at the image of Formosa. "I see the bird and fox, where's this thing...?" She said with curiosity and in an interrogative fashion.

"Well... Uhhhhh… Corvus, you tell her." Bernard muttered once again before asking the crow who was shocked at Bernard passing the conversation over to him.

"Really?! Why can't you do it?!" Corvus said angrily as he looked at the nervous Bernard. "Ugh fine... The big slime monster thing is in his Lacrima." He explained.

"...Excuse me?" Camilla said as she turned her attention towards Corvus.

"My name is Corvus, I'm a silver key Celestial Spirit and so is the fox, his name is Vulpecula, but you can just call him "Vulp" for short. The big monster things name is Formosa, he's kind of a demon. The three of us have been living in Bernards Lacrima pacemaker thing for a couple of weeks now." Corvus explained as Camillas eyes were widening and looked at Bernard with a look of shock.

"First, you ran away from home… No note, no warnings, no clear idea as to where you went, didn't even take anyone with you." Camilla said as she stood up and begun to pace around the room as she listed off her grievances. "And now you have been letting weird animals leech off the thing that's keeping you alive?! Are you serious, Bernard?!" She stated towards Bernard who was looking at her with a disgruntled look of his own after she dropped the book on the floor in front of him.

"Well that's kind of our fault but we-" Corvus said until he was cut off by Camilla raising her hand to signify him to stop talking.

"I already heard the whole story from the others." Camilla said as she cut off Corvus' defense.

"Must have been after she knocked you out." Corvus said as he looked at Bernard who was still silent and making a disgruntled face. "They also mentioned something about an "S" something?" Corvus said aloud as he was unsure what they meant before Bernard turned his head towards the crow with a surprised look.

"S?... Wait... Are you talking about "S-Class?" Like an S-Class wizard?" Bernard said as he looked at Corvus and then turned to the still angry Camilla who was standing with closed eyes and her arms folded. "You became S-Class!? When did that happen?!" Bernard exclaimed with surprise in his tone.

"Oh? You should have seen it! It was quite the day, the party we threw was so nice, you should have been there." Camilla said sarcastically before her sarcastic expression on her face turned back into an irritated one. "Oh right! You should have been there!" Camilla exclaimed loudly with anger in her voice.

"Wow... We actually have two wizards now that were S-Class?... We only had one the entire time before I left." Bernard said as he tried to process the new information.

"I seriously don't understand you right now Bernard. First, you leave after one of the shows and don't even bother to contact me, or anyone else for that matter, and now you seriously are shocked I became an S-Class wizard. You really are scum, you know that?!" Camilla exclaimed loudly as she kneeled down in front of Bernard and looked him in the eyes with a critical voice once again.

'"Show?"' Corvus said with confusion as he and Vulp looked at Camilla.

"Didn't know that either huh? Not surprised, being an asshole is something he has become a pro at now." Camilla said to Corvus as she took another verbal jab at Bernards character. "Well, go on. Tell them." Camilla said as she pointed her hands in Vulp and Corvus' directions for Bernard to explain.

"Psycho Circus is not just a wizards guild." Bernard explained. "It's also a performance and showmanship guild where all the members use their magics for stage acts. There's a tri-weekly show we do where everyone performs acts they have been practicing with their magics for a live audience. It's our big money maker outside of job requests like every other guild does."

"Huh, that's different... Wait, if you were a member of this guild than that means... Pffff! Bahahaha! You were a carnie!? Hahahaha!" Corvus said until he spontaneously started to laugh as he came to a conclusion about Bernard.

"No! I wasn't, like I said, I'm not a wizard so I couldn't perform in the show." Bernard said with annoyance as he rebuffed Corvus' laughing at him until Bernard noticed Camilla was practically staring daggers into him after his comment.

"Wait..." Corvus said as she stopped laughing. "If that's true, does she have an act?" Corvus asked of Bernard as Camilla raised an eyebrow to his question. "Please... Tell me she had an exotic dance routine. I really want to know." Corvus said perversely as Bernard and Camilla blushed in embarrassment at his comment.

"No! She doesn't have a skimpy dance act!" Bernard said angrily at Corvus.

"Had to ask... Wait, if that's true, then what did you do here then if you didn't perform in the show?" Corvus questioned to Bernard as Bernard hesitated to answer.

"Lying too Bernard? I guess it goes hand in hand with keeping secrets." Camilla said to Bernard as Bernard made an increasingly nervous expression on his face, prompting Corvus and Vulp to raise their eyebrows in confusion and curiosity.

"What does that mean?" Corvus said as he looked at Bernard with suspicion as Camilla made a deep sigh, tired of waiting for Bernard to speak.

"Fine, if you won't tell them, I will." Camilla said as she stood up from her kneeling position. "First off, this one here did have an important job with the guild, even if he wasn't a wizard, it was still very important." She explained.

"Oh! Oh! Let me guess! He was the janitor!" Corvus joked as he looked at Bernard who proceeded to just look at the floor sullenly. "Pffff! Hahaha! you were totally the clean-... Wait a minute... That can't be right. All of this trouble over a janitor?" Corvus said until he realized the possibility of all this trouble being over a custodian for a guild seemed a bit too farfetched.

"He wasn't just our janitor." Camilla said as she turned around and grabbed her beer bottle off the floor and took a quick swig.

"Okay? So he was the janitor, what else did he do?" Corvus questioned as Bernard continued to look at the ground in shame as Vulp stared at Bernards defeated look on his face.

"He was also our advertiser." Camilla stated as she looked at Bernard.

"He posted flyers around town?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow, still unsure.

"Not just in Hemlock but in several other places in the surrounding areas nearby." Camilla said as she continued.

"That it?" Corvus questioned.

"He also ordered our food to sell during the shows." Camilla continued.

"And?" The crow continued to question.

"And managed our expenditures and rentals for outside help. Bought props for everybody. Set up the show floor too." Camilla said as she stared at Bernard who was continuing to get more and more depressed the more she continued to talk.

"Okay?" The crow continued with a raised eyebrow.

"He also came up with everyone's acts for them to perform." Camilla stated as Corvus and Vulps eyes widened in surprise. "He also helped them practice their acts until everyone could perform them perfectly." Camilla stated as she turned to Corvus.

"Wait? What?" Corvus said with surprise in his voice. "You did that here?" The crow asked of Bernard who still refused to make eye contact with anyone in the room. "Anything else?"

"He was the show ringmaster..." Camilla bluntly stated as Bernard slumped his head down to the point he was practically laying on the floor as the Celestial Spirits looked on in shock. "His job was to be the host for the show and participated with everyones act if the acts needed an additional person if they didn't want to use an audience member. Sound pretty important huh?" Camilla said as she continued to stare down Bernard with a contemptuous look.

"Seriously?! How much stuff did you do here?!" Corvus shouted loudly as he looked at Bernard with a slightly agitated face at the amount of secrets Bernard had kept hidden from them. "Is there anything else you have been keeping quiet about that is kind of important?!" Corvus exclaimed angrily.

"Shall I keep going?" Camilla said with a mischievous and yet angry smirk on her face as Bernard looked up at her.

"Please... Don't..." Bernard said, finally speaking up.

"No! Keep going! I want to know!" Corvus said as he looked at Camilla, still wanting to know more.

"Remember the guild master? The guy who made all the bad jokes who runs this guild?" Camilla said as she looked at Corvus.

"Yeah?" Corvus said with curiosity as Bernard swallowed his spit nervously.

"That's Bernards father, Barnum O'Halloran." Camilla said, revealing Bernards connection to the guild master of Psycho Circus.

"...What?!" Corvus screamed as he and Vulp looked on in shock as they turned to Bernard with angry looks on their faces. "Wait! Wait! If that's true and that weird bowling pin looking guy is Bernards dad then that means?!" Corvus said as he put two and two together.

"Correct... This prick is supposed to be our next guild master too." Camilla said as she pointed at Bernard whose eyes were now tearing up.

"Oh come on kid! This is all big deal stuff you shouldn't have kept quiet about! This is also super important crap that would have been nice to know about!" Corvus yelled, criticizing Bernard who proceeded to keep his mouth shut from all the verbal abuse he was getting.

"There's one thing I just want to ask..." Camilla said as she walked over to the trio and kneeled down in front of Bernard. "Why? That's all I want to know." Camilla said with a serious look on her face as she stared at the depressed Bernard.

Silence was the only sound coming from Bernards mouth as he closed his eyes and just proceeded to aim his head downward to avoid looking Camilla in the eyes, shame forming on his face as Camilla, Corvus and Vulp just looked at him with disgruntled looks.

"Oh fine!" Camilla said angrily as she stood up, becoming fed up with Bernards inability to open up. "If the silent treatment is how you want to go about things, then fine then!" Camilla said as she put the chair she was sitting in originally back next to the table and took the beer bottle she was drinking with her as she approached the exit to the tent.

Clapping her hands, the lights that kept the tent lit suddenly turned off. Moments before leaving the tent, she made one last glance in Bernards direction with an angry look in her eyes as she clenched her fists before strutting off back to the guildhall.

"Not even going to tell us, huh?" Corvus said with an equally angry look in his face as he turned towards Bernard who still refused to look at anyone with his eyes shut. "You really are an asshole kid..." Corvus said as he shifted his body away from Bernards direction and shut his eyes in an attempt to go to sleep.

Vulp, on the other hand, stared at Bernard with a concerned and yet bothered expression before deciding to turn away from him as well and tried to sleep while in his chains.

With the Celestial Spirits turning away from him in anger, Bernard finally opened his eyes and looking down through the darkness at the copy of Sorcerer Weekly Camilla left behind, all he could do is look at it and be alone with his thoughts.

_"I really do deserve this..."_ Bernard thought in his head as he closed his eyes again and tried to go to sleep despite his discomfort physically, from the position his body was stuck in, and mentally, with how he was feeling deep down.

* * *

**Going home can be a good thing when you are surrounded by loved ones but even still, sometimes it can be heart wrenching for those who don't wish to be around others. With Bernard back at Psycho Circus and surrounded by his fellow guildmates once again, all should be well. But for Bernard who, after a rough conversation with Camilla, only feels more and more depressed being around his guildmates as a prisoner, what could possibly happen next? What is the reason for Bernards departure from his guild when he had such an overly involved and important role within the wizard entertainers guild? How does these secrets affect his alliance with the Celestial Spirits? And what about you, the reader? Do you think Bernards treatment for keeping secrets is justified? More to find out and to come on the next chapter of Menagerie!**

**(Authors Note: Hello, it's me. Thank you for reading. This was another cut down chapter like awhile ago. The original idea for this chapter was dramatically longer than intended but like I said, I am trying to avoid getting these chapters to be too long so they dont overwhelm me as the writer and you as the reader. That's about it. See you next time ;P)**


	14. Chapter 14

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guild, 7:12 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

With sunlight passing over the town of Hemlock and the Psycho Circus guildhall, the rays of light passing through the streets and waking up the townsfolk to start their day, one individual was wishing he could sleep a little longer with how rough of a night he had.

Inside Camilla's tent, Bernard was stirring in his kneeling position with the chains still wrapped around his body to prevent him from escaping as he started to open his eyes.

"Ughhh…" Bernard yawned as he started to wake up. Looking around, he sullenly remembered where he was. _"Oh right... I am here again... Wish it was just some bad nightmare..."_ He thought in his head as he turned his eyes to the side to see Vulp starting to wake up while in chains.

"Hey..." Bernard said to the fox Celestial Spirit with mixed emotions. Turning his head, Vulp looked at Bernard with a concerned face. "I'm fine... You?" He asked to Vulp who nodded to confirm he was okay, prompting him to smile in response to seeing one of his fellow captives was alright as he turned his head towards Corvus who was already awake and looking in another direction. "How about you?" Bernard asked.

"Shut up..." Corvus said while looking away.

"I'm just asking- blagh!" Bernard talked until he noticed a weird taste in his mouth. _"The heck? What's this weird flavor I'm tasting? I feel like someone wiped a strawberry all over my lips." _Bernard thought as he licked his lips, trying to figure out what the taste in his mouth was.

"I said shut up! I'm focusing..." Corvus said as he looked in a direction of the tent house, prompting Bernard and Vulp to look in the same direction to figure out what he was looking at.

Bernard, widening his eyes in surprise, then figured out what Corvus was looking at. Behind the changing curtain in the room was the silhouette of a woman changing her clothes behind it as the trio stared at the figure removing articles of clothing and stringing them up over the curtain.

_"Yup! That's definitely Camilla!"_ Bernard thought as he looked at Camilla changing behind the curtain. "Hey! Stop! I don't want her any more angrier at me than she already is!" He shouted in a quiet voice towards Corvus as he continued to stare.

"I'm not listening to you..." Corvus said as he continued to stare.

_"He's still mad..."_ Bernard thought as he looked away from where Camilla was getting dressed. _"A__nd speaking of mad..." _He continued to think.

Emerging behind the curtain, Camilla had appeared before the trio of captives, now sporting a grey tank top with a light green flannel-like shirt over her tank top while wearing a grey miniskirt and a pair of brown open toe heeled shoes.

"Thank you for the feast." Corvus said with a content look on his face as he locked eyes with Camilla who looked at the crow with an unamused face.

"You really need to work on controlling your libido..." Camilla said to the crow with an annoyed look on her eyes until she turned her eyes towards Bernard. As they made eye contact, Bernard just looked at her with the same depressing face from the night before. "Still don't want to talk huh?" She said as Vulp and Corvus turned their heads towards Bernard to see if he will finally talk.

"Guess not..." Corvus said with a disappointed look in his eyes as Vulp still continued to look concerned at Bernard.

"Of course..." Camilla sighed as she felt like this conversation was going nowhere. Moving over to the kitchen area of the tent house, Camilla reached into a drawer and pulled out a key as she walked over to where the captives were. Putting the key in the locks on the chains that tied down Corvus and Vulp, the chains loosened around their bodies and Corvus and Vulp were freed from their bindings.

"Sweet freedom!" Corvus exclaimed as he and Vulp started to stretch their bodies to get some of their composure back. Flapping his wings, Corvus took flight to meet Camilla face to face. "So why'd you let us out?"

"As far as I can tell, I have no problem with you two. It's mostly just him." Camilla said as she put the chains to the side on the floor as she looked at Bernard. "You both need to be around him to have energy like what the others said and you seem just as aggravated by him being unable to be a grown man, so I am not going to keep you locked up like him." Camilla explained to the Celestial Spirits.

"Thank you! With how many times we have been tied up, I was getting worried it was going to be a trend for me." Corvus said as he was thankful for no longer being chained up.

"Guess I am staying like this in here?" Bernard said as he looked up at Camilla and Corvus standing over him while Vulp looked at him from the side.

"You're staying in chains but not in here." Camilla said with a disgruntled look as the yellow box that was still active over his chains disappeared as Camilla grabbed Bernard by the shackles and lifted him up to a standing position. "You're coming with me and staying in the guildhall until I am done working today."

"Great..." Bernard said as he sighed, expecting a very long day ahead of him.

"Come on." Camilla said as she pulled Bernard with Corvus and Vulp following them out of the tent and towards the big top guildhall.

Entering the guildhall, Camilla pulled Bernard over to a corner and kicked his legs underneath him to force him into a kneeling position again. Holding her hand up, the yellow barrier box that bolted Bernard to the floor in the tent house appeared once again over Bernards chains and bolted him into the floor of the guildhall.

"Seriously?! You are just leaving me in the same position as before but now in the guildhall!?" Bernard exclaimed angrily as he knelt down in front of Camilla once again.

"No I am not." Camilla said as she walked away from him and went over to the bar. Reaching over the bar, she pulled out something and hid it behind her back as she walked back over to Bernard. "You can wear this instead of your beanie." Camilla said as she removed Bernards beanie and placed what she had on Bernards head.

Propped up on Bernards head was a cone shaped hat that read the words; "DUNCE" in big bold letters. After placing it on his head, Corvus' cheeks started to expand as he landed on a wooden table in the guildhall and tried to hold back his desire to laugh until he couldn't anymore.

"Pfffff! Bahahahaha! Oh my god! That's rich! Hahahaha!" Corvus exclaimed as his laughter was causing his eyes to water as Vulp looked at Bernard with a raised eyebrow at the hat on his head.

"Really!? A dunce hat?!" Bernard complained as he wore the hat that made him look like an idiot.

"This will be the first step in your punishment." Camilla said bluntly as she walked towards the bar. "Now keep quiet, I got cleaning to do." She said annoyed.

"I am not going to sit here with this- whoa, wait a minute... Cleaning?" Bernard spoke until something Camilla said had caught his attention. "You're cleaning up the guildhall?" He questioned.

"Yes. And didn't I say not to talk to me?" Camilla said annoyed as she took a rag and started to clean off some of the glasses and jugs.

"Why are you doing it?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow. "That shouldn't be something you should be doing."

"And yet here I am, cleaning up..." Camilla said as she continued to wipe a glass.

"She isn't supposed to?... Actually this give me an opportunity to ask this, what is your job here?" Corvus spoke up as he asked Camilla a question.

"I'm head of security for the show." Camilla answered. "I keep the miscreant drunks who like to show up to heckle the acts out and I protect the people in case something were to happen." She continued.

"Huh, that actually makes a lot of sense for someone who knows Barrier Magic." Corvus stated as he and Vulp sat on a table in the guildhall. "Kind of disappointed you don't have an exotic dancer act though." Corvus said with a perverted look in his eyes as he looked at Camilla.

"I don't have a performance but I can act out a scene for you where I break your beak off with my bare hands." Camilla said in annoyance as she threatened the crow for his lecherous comments.

"Okay easy!" Corvus said nervously to avoid getting on her bad side. "Sometimes I can't help myself. Hehe." Corvus joked.

"You and several other people I know of in this place." Camilla said as she started to wipe down the bar area.

"Hey..." Bernard said, catching Camillas attention.

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?" Camilla said angrily as she was starting to get annoyed at Bernard whining.

"I haven't really eaten in about two days since you caught me and the other two. Can I have something to-" Bernard spoke up until he noticed Camilla was making an angry glare directed at him. "Eat?" Bernard said with fear in his voice as he was scared of the look in her eyes.

Reaching below the guildhall bar, Camilla had a dog bowl that she picked up and placed it in the sink at the bar and put water from the tap into the bowl and proceeded to walk it over to Bernard.

"Here. Drink this. And shut the hell up." Camilla said angrily as she dropped it in front of the guilds captive.

"Really!?" Bernard said as he looked down at the dog bowl he was expected to drink out of if he wanted to fight his hunger.

"I'd just drink it and deal with it kid. With the way you have been acting lately, it's kind of called for." Corvus said as he sat on the table with Vulp.

Bernard sighed in response before bending down and starting to lap up the water.

"Hey, when did we get a dog? Hehe." Said the voice of Anatoli who started to enter the guildhall while standing on his rolling ball as he walked over to Bernard.

"Why are you here so early?" Bernard said as he knelt back up to look at Anatoli.

"I started coming in early to help out." Anatoli explained as he sat on his ball.

"Mainly because we all have been." Said the voice of Pietro as he proceeded to enter the guild behind Anatoli with Marlene also walking in too.

"You all have?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow as Corvus flew over and landed on Pietros shoulder and Vulp walking over and standing next to Marlene. _"Something isn't right here..."_ He thought as he looked at the group.

"Well... It's kind of a long story- Huh?" Marlene said before she noticed Camilla was motioning towards the group and catching their attention.

"Please avoid speaking to Bernard guys... He's being punished for his whole silent treatment routine from last night with one of his own." Camilla said to the group as she glanced at Bernard who winced from the look she gave.

"Well alright then." Pietro said as he walked over with Corvus on his shoulder over to a table with Marlene and Vulp following suit.

"Hey, Anatoli." Bernard whispered before Anatoli walked away, catching his attention. "I got a question for you."

"What's up?" Anatoli bent over to hear.

"I woke up this morning with a weird taste in my mouth and I was wondering if you showed up last night and pranked me." Bernard questioned to the confused Anatoli.

"As much as I would have loved to prank you like old times, why would I do something so basic as put a weird taste in your mouth?" Anatoli said with a weird smirk on his face. "You know I would have done something more complex and funny than something as simple as that. What taste was it?" He wondered.

"It was kind of like a strawberry taste on my lips and on my tongue-" Bernard explained before he overheard Camilla speak up.

"Hey! I thought I said not to talk to anybody!" Camilla exclaimed to get Anatoli to stop talking to Bernard.

"Oh! Sorry!" Anatoli said as he got back on his ball and rolled away.

_"Camilla and the others are cleaning up... Actually wait..." _Bernard thought with suspicion as he looked around the guildhall and looked at the interior. _"Why has this place not been updated?... Me leaving for two whole years shouldn't have made this place look so... Unchanged... Same tables, same layout, same bar design... What the heck?" _He continued to think as he surveyed the room.

Some time passed as the guildmembers set up the place as more and more of the members of Psycho Circus such as Harriet started to enter and congregated around the tables and bar within the guildhall. In one of the corners of the guildhall, some of the members were in a small crowd looking at the request board for job requests.

_"Even Camilla had to put up the guild requests... I can understand my idiot father not doing a thing because he likes being a lazy guildmaster but... Where is the show ringmaster? He should be doing these things, or at least helping out... Like I did..." _Bernard thought as he looked at the group by the request board.

As he looked over, Corvus and Vulp approached Bernard as he turned their attention towards them.

"What have you two been up to?" Bernard questioned the Celestial Spirits.

"Been mingling the whole time with your friends. I gotta say, this is a pretty sweet place." Corvus said as he looked around.

"Nice to know someone is enjoying themselves..." Bernard said with a disgruntled tone and a twitch in his eyes.

"Had to tell some of them the whole story why you are sitting here in the corner like a kid in time out. Got a few chuckles. Hehe." Corvus said with a smirk as Bernard looked at him with annoyance. "I'll say this though... I thought the monkey guy and the chameleon girl and the bearded lady was the bare minimum of "weird" you guys had here." Corvus said as he and Vulp turned around as a peculiar individual passed by.

A very odd-looking figure with a split torso down the middle passed by the trio as Corvus and Vulp looked on in curiosity. Sporting two heads on his body on each side of the split torso with a left arm on the left side upper body and a right arm on the right side upper body, he had three legs on his lower half. He had a young appearance as they walked by the trio with papers in their hands and wearing a plain set of clothes with a simple green t-shirt, blue pants and brown shoes.

"I wanted an easy job!" Said one of the heads that was sporting a pulled back green ponytail hairstyle to the other head.

"And I said I wanted a challenge!" Said the other head that was sporting a green bowl cut style.

"We need money for the rent so picking something easy is the best choice!" Said the ponytailed head.

"I want to do a job where we can fight something so I can let loose some stress!" Said the bowl cut head.

"Oh yeah?! Why?!" The ponytailed head proclaimed angrily.

"Because being around you all day pisses me off!" The bowl cut head said, equally agitated as they walked away.

"Ok... That was disturbing..." Corvus said with wide eyes.

"That was Nole and Andy... He used to be one guy." Bernard said, catching the Celestial Spirits attention. "His name used to be "Noland" but he screwed up big time when he was younger abusing his Multiplication Magic and wound up looking like a conjoined twin. And they are still arguing like a pair of dumbasses after all this time... So he basically became his own brother. Oh and he has an odd swallowing act because of how his internal structure works." Bernard said as he looked off at the conjoined duo leaving the guild.

Looking down, Corvus and Vulp were startled by the sight of a small pinkish toy car driving past their feet and drove around the floor of the guildhall and under the tables, knocking against peoples feet.

"Damn it! That's the fourth time I've seen that stupid toy car driving around and hitting my feet!" Corvus exclaimed in annoyance as the toy car drove off.

"The Tabana Siblings..." Bernard said with an unamused expression. "They're triplets." He continued.

"Triplets?" Corvus said confused. "I haven't seen any triplets around here all day. What can they do? Control toys?" The crow questioned.

"Kaori, Kory and Kary Tabana. Their parents were a set of clowns who worked for us before retiring. They started up a Magic Mobile business for magical vehicle rentals on the other side of town. And that toy car is their prized possession... They're in it right now." Bernard explained as he looked under the tables for the triplets driving around.

"What?!" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked around the tables confused.

"Worlds smallest Magic Mobile. They like to do an act where they drive around a makeshift obstacle course in it and the audience tries to keep up because they constantly are driving above what we tell them to. Doesn't help they are a group of pre-teens either..." Bernard said exhaustedly.

"You got weird conjoined people and a group of clown kids driving around in tiny cars... This place is awesome!" Corvus exclaimed with intrigue as he was enjoying the unusual air to the place. "Why the hell did you ran away from this?" Corvus said, attempting to finally get an answer out of Bernard.

"Maybe when Camilla deems it fit for me to get a pee break, I'll tell you." Bernard said with a growing tick mark of anger on his head. "Actually... Now that I think about it..." Bernard then stopped and started to look around the room once again.

"What's up?" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked at Bernard.

"I don't see any new faces." Bernard said as he looked at everyone around the guild.

"Huh?" Corvus exclaimed, unsure what Bernard meant.

"It's been two years and I don't see a single new person here... That... Doesn't seem right either." Bernard said with suspicion to the confusion of the Celestial Spirits who were unsure of his meaning.

However, Bernards train of thought was derailed the moment he heard footsteps coming from the direction of the entrance to the big top. Looking over, Bernard, Corvus and Vulp saw three individuals standing at the doorway. As they entered, the trio noticed the guildhall fell silent as everyone turned their heads to see them.

One of the individuals was a woman who towered over the other two in height, her incredibly tall body appeared roughly seven feet tall. Dressed in a shiny dark blue low cut shirt with a pair of bell-bottom pants of a matching color, she wore a large amount of jewelry around her wrists, neck and ears under her blonde bob-cut hairstyle with a dark blue gem encrusted headband around her forehead and black heeled shoes.

Another was a man with an incredibly odd face that offset his plain appearance. Dressed in a black beret with a long sleeve black and white striped shirt and black pants with a messenger bag strung around his body and black shoes. His average clothes, that were similar to that of a mimes outfit, contrasted his face that gave an odd visual of a young man sporting white make up all over his face from ear to ear and, most notably, a large piece of black duct tape over his mouth.

Lastly, the least visually distinct of the trio was a young man at the same age as Bernard with short dirty blond spikey hair and a set of blue eyes and a smirk on his face. For clothes, he wore a red and black petticoat with white pants and black boots with white gloves over his hands as he walked into guild with the other two odd fellows in tow.

"I have returned everyone!" The young blonde haired man said to everyone who proceeded to not respond.

"Okay, who is this guy? And why does he have a mime and a woman who looks like she needs to duck every time she walks through a doorway with him?" Corvus whispered to Bernard to get an answer.

"I... Don't actually know. I've never seen this guy before." Bernard said with surprise as he looked at the trio, unsure of who they are. _"Wait... That guys outfit..."_ Bernard thought as he looked at the young blonde haired man.

"Isn't anyone going to say "hello" to the ringmaster?" The young blonde said in a vain way as he approached the bar area where Camilla was, who proceeded to sigh in response before speaking up.

"Hello Chester." Camilla said as she looked at the blonde man named Chester before turning to the people he was with. "Hello Gigantia." Camilla said to the tall woman named Gigantia. "Hello Silencio." She said to the mime-like man named Silencio.

"See, being welcomed back after a tough mission isn't so hard." Gigantia said with a smirk on her face as she sat down at the bar with Silencio who wasn't saying anything because of the tape over his mouth.

"How'd your mission go?" Camilla said as she proceeded to clean a glass behind the guild bar.

"Obviously well if we are here." Chester said with a cocky attitude. "A few weeks away from the guild to take care of some thugs near the oceanside did some good for me and my team." He continued as he put his hands on Gigantia and Silencios shoulders.

"Another victory for Team Woodstock and another job that cuts it a bit close." Camilla said as she rolled her eyes, not completely caring.

"Oh come on, don't be so moody with your ringmaster, Chester Woodstock. I made it back before the next show, didn't I?" Chester said as he made an arrogant smile.

"What?!" Bernard exclaimed loudly, causing everyone in the guild to look in his direction. "You're the ringmaster?!" Bernard said in shock, as he tried to process this new information.

"Who is that?" Chester said as he looked at the strange young man in the corner of the guildhall that was chained to the floor with a dunce cap on his head.

"Do you remember the half a dozen times we all asked for you to help us find someone. An important member of the guild we kind of wanted to see if he was alright?" Camilla explained. "Yeah, that's him. His name's Bernard, he's the guild masters son."

"This guy!?" Chester said as he walked over to Bernard as Corvus and Vulp inched away from Bernard to give them room.

Standing over the chained up Bernard, Chester made a face of disdain as he looked down at the chained up young man.

"Really? This is my predecessor as the ringmaster?" Chester said as Gigantia and Silencio walked over to join him. "Talk about upgrades. Am I right?" Chester joked as Gigantia chuckled at his joke.

_"This guy waltzes in here, expecting everyone to say "hello" to him when he should be saying it to them. And he has been gone for weeks on jobs!? And he's the ringmaster?!" _Bernard thought with his mouth agape as he looked at the trio, ignoring their obvious insults.

"Why is he even here?" Gigantia said towards Camillas direction.

"Me, Anatoli, Marlene and Pietro found him on a train heading towards Magnolia." Camilla said with a plain expression.

"No, that's not what she asked." Chester said, responding to Camillas answer. "She asked; "why is he here?" Why is he in our guildhall." He continued, the cocky attitude he was giving slowly morphing into one of annoyance as Bernard continued to look at him with a look of agitation.

"Because he is a member of the guild." Pietro explained as he got up from his table and walked over to the trio.

"He runs away for two whole years and the best we can do for punishment is have him sit around all day like a bum in chains?" Gigantia said, criticizing the decision to have Bernard around.

"Hey, he's a member of the family." Anatoli said as he rolled over on his ball. "The master hasn't really decided yet what his official punishment will be so we are waiting on what Master Barnum will say." He continued.

"Seems a bit of a waste, don't you think?" Gigantia said as she and Silencio looked at Chester who continued to eye down Bernard.

"We should just throw him out with the garbage. This guild has no need for someone who doesn't want to be in it." Chester said as he looked at Bernard with a distasteful look.

_"This guy is pissing me off..."_ Bernard thought as he looked at Chester, still staring back at him with a look of irritation of his own.

"That's not your call to make!" Marlene said as she walked over, attempting to verbally defend Bernard.

"I am the ringmaster, I can decide whatever with the show. And this guy has no involvement so why have him around at all!?" Chester exclaimed as he reached into his pocket and pulled out an object.

In his hand, Chester had a wooden cross in his hand, ones that were typically used for marionettes by puppeteers. As Chester held it, the wooden cross begun to glow as a series of thin string had begun to stretch out of it. Reaching down onto the floor, the string suddenly begun to move on their own and wrapped around Bernards neck as he felt his windpipe start to feel choked.

"What are you doing!?" Anatoli exclaimed as he saw Chester proceed to choke Bernard with string. As he attempted to get closer, Silencio proceeded to get in front of Anatoli to prevent him from getting closer. "Out of my way, mime!" Anatoli said in frustration as Silencio stood his ground.

Kneeling down while choking Bernard with string, Chester proceeded to look in Bernards angry eyes.

"I know what you are after... Like hell I am letting you have it..." Chester said with an angry expression as he still kept eye contact with the guilds captive.

Suddenly, however, Bernard proceeded to inhale while being lightly choked by Chesters puppet strings. Forming a wad of spit in his mouth, Bernard hocked a loogy of phlegm in Chesters eye, causing Chester to loosen the string as he backed away from Bernard to wipe the spit out of his eye.

"You bastard!" Chester exclaimed as Bernard looked at him with a smirk on his face.

_"Heh... Good one kid."_ Corvus thought as he and Vulp looked at Bernard, finally smiling as he fought back.

"I'll teach you to mess with me!" Chester exclaimed with fury in his voice as a set of magic circles appeared before him. "Requip!" Chester shouted loudly as the magic circles started to materialize a set of unknown objects.

"Enough!" Camilla screamed loudly, causing everyone in the guild hall to stop what they were doing to look in her direction. "No fighting in the guildhall..." Camilla said with a look of rage in her face as her body glowed.

"Tch…" Chester clicked his tongue as the magic circles disappeared and he put his wooden cross back in his pocket as Silencio and Gigantia turned towards him. "Very well, I don't want to piss off "little Ms. S-Class." But don't think just because you outrank me as a wizard in the guild doesn't mean you can lecture me when you are the one allowing this moron to be a member." Chester exclaimed as he and his two confidants walked away towards a lone table on the other side of the guild.

"Hey Bernie, you alright?" Anatoli said as he walked over to Bernard with Marlene and Pietro, concerned.

"Kid?" Corvus said with Vulp as they joined the other members of Psycho Circus to check on Bernard as he was being choked. However, the five people checking up on Bernard were surprised by the face he was giving, even prompting Camilla to look from all the way across the bar.

Anger, rage, frustration, irritation. These were some of the emotions that Bernards face was giving off as he continued to look in the direction of Chester and his team with a visceral look of fury in his eyes. As he stared at them, Camilla couldn't help but make an expression of worry as she watched Bernard look at the trio of wizards that were pissing him off.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tent House, 10:01 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Back inside the tent house next to the guildhall was Bernard, Camilla and the Celestial Spirits. Sitting back in the corner was Bernard while Camilla placed an old mattress down on the floor next to her bed, the Celestial Spirits then proceeded to lay down on the mattress.

"Sorry to say but this is the best as I got at the moment." Camilla said to Corvus and Vulp.

"Hey, no skin off my beak. At least we aren't wearing blankets made of chains." Corvus said as he sat on the mattress.

"That's good- Hmmm..." Camila said until she noticed the angry expression Bernard had on his face while still tied up.  
Choosing to ignore Bernard, Camilla proceeded to walk over to the changing curtain in the room and started to change her clothes.

"You know, your face is going to be stuck like that if you keep it up kid." Corvus said as he turned towards Bernard who was staring blankly and angrily into space.

_"...There is so much wrong going on..." _Bernard thought as Camilla exited the curtain, now sporting a brown tank top and a pair of black shorts and sitting down on her bed with a book in her hands that she began to read.

"Start talking..." Bernard said with aggravation in his tone towards Camilla, continuing to ignore him.

"Hey kid, calm down. Don't want to piss her off you know." Corvus said with concern as Bernard stared at Camilla with rage in his eyes.

"Why is the guild like this?" Bernard questioned to Camilla who proceeded to turn around to avoid glancing at Bernards angry gaze. "The guildhall hasn't been updated internally in any way, I didn't see a single person practicing their acts for the show, the show is apparently in a few days if what I heard is to be correct, you were cleaning up everything by yourself with help from the other guildmembers when they shouldn't have to and the ringmaster is-" Bernard said, listing off a ton of grievances he had seen as the day went on with the sound of his voice getting angrier and angrier with each listing.

Becoming disgruntled and annoyed, Camilla proceeded to cut off him off from continuing by closing her book and putting it on the ground next to her bed. Clapping her hands to turn off the lights, she proceeded to grab a blanket and cover her body before putting her head on the pillow, still facing away from Bernard.

"Don't you ignore me!" Bernard shouted. "I want some damn answers!" He continued with fury in his voice as Camilla continued to ignore him.

"Kid! Stop screaming! This isn't going to help anybody if you get angry!" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked at him from the mattress.

"I need to know god damn it!" Bernard said as he looked at the crow. "First of all, who is the knob with my old outfit?!" He asked.

"Well I can answer that..." Corvus said, catching Bernards attention. "I asked around with some of the guildmembers. His name is Chester Woodstock and he has been the ringmaster for the guilds show for the past year." He explained.

"What else?" Bernard questioned.

"The guys got a bit of an ego and he hasn't really been doing a great job of helping around the guild." Corvus said. "I asked the mustached guy, he said the guy mostly spends his time on jobs with his little team he calls "Team Woodstock."' The crow continued to explain.

"Oh that's just lovely! And what an original name! And he has his head so far up his own ass and isn't doing his job! That's just fine and- Gah!" Bernard said until he was cut off by something soft hitting him in the face. Turning their heads, Corvus and Vulp saw that Camilla was now sitting up in her bed and had noticed she threw a pillow at Bernard.

"The one not doing their job around here is you!" Camilla exclaimed angrily.

"When I left this place, it wasn't in a state of disarray! Hell, it's not even in a state of disarray... But it sure as hell isn't any good either!" Bernard said with fury in his voice.

"You shouldn't have left at all! And yet here you went, no explanation! No letters! Becoming a bum in Hargeon when you had a good life here!" Camilla said as she got up from the bed and approached Bernard.

"Just because I left doesn't mean you guys had to hire some guy to replace me who can't do a good job in the interim!" Bernard argued.

"He doesn't do a bad job when it comes to being on stage or performing. It's just..." Camilla said before stopping for a moment.

"Just...?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"He is rough around the edges... And a bit of an egomaniac... But he is decent as a showrunner. And he performed for us for awhile before the guild master made him the show ringmaster." Camilla said, moderately defending Chester.

"Okay, what about his plans? Has he come up with new performances for all the members?" Bernard said curious.

"...No. No one has had their acts updated in about three months. And even then, that was everyone working together to come up with ideas..." Camilla said as she rubbed her temples, with Bernards eye twitching as she said that.

"Okay... What about show numbers? Have we been getting decent audiences?" Bernard questioned.

"...All over the place... Sometimes the place is half full." Camilla said disgruntled.

"Half full!? We used to get full houses all the damn time! Is he advertising in other towns?!" Bernard exclaimed with growing concern.

"No... Most of the guildmembers lately have been advertising while on jobs and we have put fliers up around Hemlock... That's about it." Camilla explained.

_"I'm on the verge of going ballistic... Wait... His cohorts..." _Bernard thought, growing more and more frustrated. "Does his friends have acts? What are they? How does a seven foot tall woman and a mime fit into the show? Marlene has a dance routine, Anatoli does acrobatics, Pietro does insane deadlifts and power stuff. What can they do?" Bernard questioned.

"...No one has seen their acts... Most of the others haven't seen their performances to see what they even are since they came here." Camilla said as she went back to her bed and sat down on it as Bernard started to shake with rage.

"...Are you serious right now?" Bernard said, trying to hold back the anger and fury in his voice. "Are you serious right now!?" He repeated and shouted.

"Not all of it is Chesters fault... Some of the blame can be passed on a certain someone who wasn't around so we didn't have to worry about mismanagement." Camilla stated as she gave Bernard a harsh look.

"As far as I've been told, nothing around here has been changed for the better!" Bernard exclaimed with a twitch in his eye.

"No... There has been one thing that's changed." Camilla said, catching Bernards attention. "You." Camilla said as Bernards eyes widened in agitation as Corvus and Vulp looked at Camilla.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bernard said.

"You don't care about anything anymore..." Camilla said in an upset and disappointed tone. "The guild, the show, it's members, the work. Not even-" Camilla continued before she was cut off.

"Not even what?" Bernard said with a concerning look in his eyes.

"...Nothing... Why do I even bother?" Camilla said as she turned away and laid back on the bed.

"Hey..." Bernard said.

"What?" Camilla said annoyed while she looked away.

"I have to pee..." Bernard said, slightly embarrassed.

"...Seriously?!" Corvus exclaimed, finally speaking up and catching the attention of Camilla and Bernard. "All that serious stuff and now you have to go take a piss to ruin the mood!?" The crow said in surprise.

"When you have to go, you have to go..." Bernard said as he looked at the exit.

"Go pee your pants..." Camilla said angrily as she looked away.

"...Fine then." Bernard said with half closed eyes as Corvus and Vulp looked at him in shock, unsure of what he means. "I'll piss my underwear and then rub my body all over the nice clean floor here. The smell will linger for awhile!" Bernard said threateningly and in a petty manner.

"Oh god, you are unbelievable!" Camilla said, becoming more and more fed up with Bernard. "You two! Take him outside!" Camilla said as she pointed at Corvus and Vulp.

"Us?!" Corvus said in surprise.

"I don't want to see him for awhile and I don't want him peeing in my house. So just take him to a tree or something. I'm going to bed." Camilla said as she exclaimed one last glance at Bernard before covering herself in her bedsheets.

"...Damn it. Alright…" Corvus said unenthusiastically as he flapped his wings to get off the mattress with Vulp taking one of Bernards chains to pull him up and walked him over to the exit as they walked out of Camillas tent house.

Turning to the side and towards the trees, the trio stopped near a group of trees in the small forest next to the guild and slightly away from Camillas house. Stopping in front of an old pine, Bernard placed his cuffed hands on it and proceeded to slam his own head against it, to the shock of Corvus and Vulp.

"The hell are you doing?!" Corvus exclaimed as he looked at Bernard repeatedly slamming his head against the tree.

"I. Am. Trying. To. Calm. Down!" Bernard said with insanity in his voice as he smashed his forehead against the pine with him speaking in-between each slam.

"You're gonna concuss yourself! Stop it!" Corvus said as Vulp turned his tail into a pair of hands and grabbed Bernards shoulders to pull him slightly from the tree before blood could start to spill from the angry young mans head.

"Ugh! God! This is pissing me off!" Bernard exclaimed as he stopped thrashing about. "Why is this place so mismanaged now. I didn't leave it like this and now everyone is practically blaming me for it!" He said as he looked at the tree.

"You're the one that ran away kid, it's kinda obvious who they can blame." Corvus explained.

"That doesn't mean they couldn't do a good job without me here!" Bernard said as he turned towards the Celestial Spirits.

"I think they relied on you a lot... Besides your replacement and his two oddball friends, people seem happy you're here at least." Corvus said with some hesitation as Bernard proceeded to undo the fly to his pants and begin to urinate on the tree. "Oh so you did have to pee?"

"Yes... I've been holding this in since yesterday morning when we were still caged up." Bernard said annoyed.

"I don't see the problem with you rejoining the guild kid. Everyone here... Ok, not everybody but most of the people here seem to like you and if you have such an important job, you're definitely needed. So why not be a part of the group again?" Corvus said, hoping to get an answer as Vulp looked with similar interest.

"...It's not that simple. Alright?" Bernard said as he finished peeing on the tree and turning back around.

"Oh yeah, it's not that simple. Oh wait, you still haven't told us anything!" Corvus said with an agitated expression as Bernard bit his lip in response to his reaction.

"Fine..." Bernard said plainly.

'"Fine" what?" Corvus reiterated.

"I'll tell you the story... Why I left, why I don't want to be here... See, I told you I would tell you the next time I had a pee break..." Bernard said with irritation in his voice.

"Kid, this is all I want. Let's hear it." Corvus said, interested in hearing Bernards tale.

"Ok so, it all started when- Gah!" Bernard said until he felt a strange sensation covering his body, to the surprise of Corvus and Vulp.

"Kid?" Corvus said with concern as Bernard started to flail about as he tripped and landed on his chest.

"What the hell is this?! I feel like somethings on me!" Bernard said as he felt something ensnare him but Corvus and Vulp looked over his body and saw nothing latched onto him besides the shackles he was in when they came outside.

"I don't see anything! Wait, is this a trick to avoid telling us the story?!" Corvus said, becoming angry at the possibility of Bernard attempting to scapegoat.

"No, you stupid pigeon! I feel like there is a fishnet or something over me!" Bernard said as he thrashed about on the ground.

"I'm not a pigeon! I am a- Gah!" Corvus said until he felt the feeling of something large smash against the back of his head, knocking him to the ground as Vulp turned to notice Corvus' hard landing on the dirt. _"Damn it... Not again..."_ Corvus thought as he lost consciousness.

Looking around for signs of danger, Vulp started to change his tail until he turned and noticed someone approaching him. Preparing to strike, Vulp twisted around and swung his tail, which had taken the form of a spiked flail, in an attempt to hit his attacker but only managed to get his tail lodged into a tree. Stuck, Vulp attempted to pull his tail out of the tree but it was too late as he looked around and noticed someone standing over him and felt something hitting against his head, knocking out the fox.

"Vulp!" Bernard exclaimed in concern for the Celestial Spirit as they were both laid out. Looking out into the darkness, Bernard noticed a group of people approaching. _"Someone's coming..."_ Bernard thought as he looked to see who was coming his way.

Looking up, Bernard looked in shock and anger as he saw the familiar face of Chester Woodstock standing over him with the same agitated look on his face when they were staring eachother down earlier that day.

"Looks like the trash needs to be taken out." Chester said as he knelt down in front of Bernard with Gigantia and Silencio approaching with Gigantia holding Corvus and Silencio holding Vulp in their arms. "You don't think I do a good job around here. Well... Let me show you how well of a job I can do." Chester said with rage in his voice as he lifted his leg and kicked Bernard in the face, knocking him out.

* * *

**Bernard... Dude... It's not been a good series of days for you, hasn't it? While forced to sit in the guild in the corner like a kid in time out, Bernard had noticed several things wrong with the Psycho Circus guild in recent times. With the next show approaching, everyone not fully prepared and his replacement being a rather vain fellow named Chester Woodstock, it seems Bernards ability to keep calm is slowly but surely fading. With Team Woodstock knocking out Bernard and the Celestial Spirits, what could they possibly plan to do with them? And what of Bernards reason for leaving, the mystery still stands... More to come, next time on "Menagerie!" **

**(Author's note: ok several things... One, this chapter was a cut down, you already knew that. Two, this chapter should have been up about three days ago but I had to suddenly go in for surgery, long story short, I am fine but you get the point. Sorry I took so long. Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter and don't be afraid to post in the reviews page, it's always good for me to see peoples thoughts on things.)**


	15. Chapter 15

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guildhall, 6:02 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Ughfigh…" Bernard said groggily as he started to open his eyes from the seated position he was in.

Looking around, Bernard noticed he was inside a box-like structure that was pitch dark except for a bit of light creeping through the bottom, signifying what he was trapped in had a tarp over it to block his ability to see. As he started to move, he looked down to notice he wasn't wearing a shirt, exposing his pacemaker Lacrima, or his shoes, only his pants. Shifting his leg in an attempt to stand up, Bernard noticed something furry brushing against his leg.

"Huh? The heck- Vulp?" Bernard said confused as he looked to the side and noticed his wrists were still shackled but now the chains were linked into the floor through a loop with two other sets of chains strung off to the sides of him. "Vulp? Corvus?" He questioned, hoping to get an answer.

"Blugh… Kid?" Said the voice of Corvus as he started to wake up. Looking around, Corvus saw Bernards legs and Vulps head on Bernards leg who was starting to open his eyes as well. "Where are we?" The crow questioned.

"If I had a guess, I would tell you..." Bernard said as he examined the loop where the chain was. Turning his head, he noticed the chain led to a collar around Vulp's neck and another chain was attached around Corvus'. "Looks like we got a new problem..." Bernard said as he looked at the collar around Corvus' neck.

"Aw seriously!?" Corvus said as he rubbed against the chained collar with his wing. "I'm really starting to get sick of constantly being chained up and junk!" The crow complained about his predicament.

"You're one to talk, I've been handcuffed for about three days now." Bernard said with an annoyed look as he and Vulp looked at Corvus underneath the darkness in the box.

"So what is this thing? It's so cramped in here." Corvus said as he tried to move his body but struggled to move his wings.

"I don't know, I can't tell." Bernard said as he moved back slightly to give the Celestial Spirits some room and stood up. Knocking his hand against the frame, Bernard noticed the box he was in was made of glass. "Whatever it is, it's made of glass and it seems kind of tough too." Bernard said as he repeated slammed his handcuffed wrists against the frame. _"Glass frame... Why does that sound familiar?"_ He thought.

"First, a normal cage in chains and now we are inside a glass box in chains. Don't know which is worse..." Corvus said annoyed as he pecked at the walls of the glass case with Vulp scratching against it with his claw.

"Sounds like he is awake." Said a moderately familiar female voice. Looking around, Bernard, Corvus and Vulp proceeded to wonder what direction the sound was coming from.

Removing the tarp over the box, Bernard and the Celestial Spirits closed their eyes as the light started to permeate over the box. As they brushed their eyes to see where they were, the trio noticed their surroundings from inside the glass case were familiar to them.

Looking around, the group noticed they were inside the Psycho Circus guildhall with the light that washed over them being sunlight dripping through the front door of the big top. After noticing the fact they were in the guildhall, the trio noticed their captors sitting on one of the guilds many wooden tables. Nearby, Gigantia was holding the tarp that was used to cover the box they were in while Chester Woodstock and Silencio sat in the seats.

"Morning sunshine." Chester said to the trio in the glass box with a sarcastic smile.

"Yeah, because it's morning- let us out of here douchebag!" Corvus said as he voice went from jokingly sarcastic to furious over the groups predicament.

"Mean little chicken, isn't he?" Gigantia said as she walked back over to the box, prompting Bernard to look up at the incredibly tall woman staring down at them.

"I'm not a chicken! I'm a crow!" Corvus shouted at Gigantia as she just looked at the bird with a face of amusement over his reaction as Vulp stared at her with a confrontational look.

"Awww, does the chicken feel the need to cry about being a caged animal? Hehe." Gigantia said as she bent forward slightly to get closer to Corvus who proceeded to flap his wings.

"Let me out of here so I can- Gah!" Corvus said as he flapped his wings violently and attempted to fly into the wall but the amount of chain latching him into the bottom of the box was too small and caused him to fall back with the collar choking him.

"Pffff! Hahaha! Now this is entertaining!" Gigantia said as she clutched at her ribs under her chest and started to laugh at Corvus' misfortune.

"Now, now, Gigantia. It's not fair to be laughing at our "old guildmates" for their troubles. No matter how hilarious it may be." Chester said as he was rubbing his wooden marionette cross with a white cloth.

"Care to explain why we are in here?" Bernard said as he looked in Chesters direction. In response, Chester motioned for Silencio to go outside. Nodding, Silencio proceeded to get up from the table and walked out the guildhall.

"Let me ask you a question. Look around the box and tell me something; do you recognize it?" Chester questioned as he put away his cross.

Looking around at the box, Bernard proceeded to examine the box in an effort to understand what he meant until he noticed something peculiar; on top was a hole that could fit something through the top of the case. Examining the case, Bernard started to recollect something.

_"A case with a hole on top... Wait a minute... I know what this thing is." _Bernard thought as he realized what the case was that he, Vulp and Corvus were stuck inside.

"Anything?" Corvus said as he looked up at Bernard who recollected the box.

"This was a part of an old escape act." Bernard said as he looked at Corvus.

"Escape act?" Corvus said confused.

"We had a guy who used to do these acts where he would put himself in a ton of danger and make his way out on his own. This was one of them. It was where he would put himself in this case that he would fill with water slowly and then would try to escape it." Bernard said as he looked at the hole. "Right there, they would put a hose and then let loose water in here. He retired and then we had this thing in a storage area in the back of the guild my dad made for old props..."

"Huh..." Corvus said with minor interest as he and Vulp looked at the hole.

"How astute." Chester said, catching the trios attention. "Looks like you at least remember something from around here." Chester said with a look of distaste forming on his face as Silencio came back into the guild while holding a long object.

"The heck you got there, mime-face?" Corvus said to Silencio as the mime turned towards the group to reveal he had a brought a hose inside with him. "The heck you gonna do with that?" Corvus said nervously.

"I bet I can figure it out..." Bernard said as he looked up at the roof of the box where the hole was.

"Once again, a good guess." Chester said, increasingly getting more annoyed.

"What's wrong? You getting bothered by the fact I can read you like a book?" Bernard said with a smirk as Chester got up from the table and approached the box.

"You won't be smirking after I am done with you." Chester said bluntly and aggressively, prompting Bernards cocky expression to turn into one of anger.

"Easy kid..." Corvus said as he looked at Bernards aggravated expression. "What do you want from us?" Corvus asked of Chester as Chester looked at the crow.

"A pair of Celestial Spirits at your beck and call... Guess you kind of need them when you have nothing to show for yourself." Chester said as he looked at Corvus and Vulp, the two of them getting offended by his comment.

"Answer the crows question." Bernard said with an equally offended tone as he stared at Chester.

"Silencio, Gigantia, you know what to do." Chester said as he continued to eye down Bernard.

"Got it." Gigantia said as she and Silencio pulled the hose and stuck the spout into the hole in the box on the top.

"Whoa wait, you aren't going to do what I think you are going to do, are you?" Corvus said nervously as he noticed the hose placed above the trio.

"Considering that little logo on the bottom of his foot makes him a member of a guild of showmen, I think it only be fitting he practice for the show." Chester said as a smirk formed on his face as he walked away with Silencio and Gigantia following him, backing away from the group in the box.

"I'm not an escape artist..." Bernard said bluntly as he looked at Chester.

"I know... You are more of a... "ringmaster" if how everyone is to be believed." Chester said as he said the word "ringmaster" with disdain when referring to Bernard. "You two." He said, catching Gigantia and Silencios attention. "Go start the pump. And keep watch too."

"Okay, Chester." Gigantia before turning towards the trio in the box. "Have fun boys." She said with a smirk and a wave as she and Silencio proceeded to leave the guildhall, leaving Chester alone with Bernard and the Celestial Spirits.

"Aw crap..." Corvus said nervously as he turned towards Bernard. "The guy who used to escape from these things, was there a trick to it?" The crow asked, hoping for a positive answer.

"Nope..." Bernard said as he continued to eye Chester. "He used to use Water Magic where he would use his powers to turn himself into water and then attempt to make it so he could fit through the cracks and cuffs."

"And last I remembered, nobody in this cage can turn themselves into water so we got any other options?" Corvus said nervously as he looked at the hose.

"Nope... Nothing that I can think of to squeeze our way out of here." Bernard said as he looked at Chester.

"Then how are we supposed to- Ahhh!" Corvus said until he screamed as the hose started to spray water into the glass case.

Slowly pumping water into the box, Bernard proceeded to bend down where the water was slowly starting to fill up the case. Putting his cuffed arms around Corvus' body and then moving over to Vulp, Bernard lifted them slightly off the ground and away from the water.

"What are you doing?" Corvus asked of Bernard as he held the Celestial Spirits in his cuffed arms.

"You guys will drown long before I do because of the height difference of this box if I didn't pick you up. Especially because you guys can barely move in here too, you drowning might happen faster." Bernard said as he held the Celestial Spirits.

"We'll go back to the Celestial Spirit world if we drown in here but... you'd just die in this stupid box." Corvus said as he looked at Bernard.

"Hey, what's the plan here?" Bernard said, looking at Chester.

"A simple one really. I leave you to drown in this old escape box and then hide your body in the river." Chester explained as he sat on the wooden table.

"Okay... And then?" Bernard continued to question.

"I'll tell everyone you managed to escape because of Camilla's incompetence when she let you go take a piss outside." Chester said, sounding as if his plan was guaranteed to work.

"Oh come on! You really think everyone in the guild is going to assume we were just going to leave in the dead of night!?" Corvus exclaimed angrily as he looked at Chester.

"No, I'd believe it." Bernard said nonchalantly, prompting Corvus and Vulp to look at him with confusion.

"Why?!" Corvus questioned.

"They would assume I don't want to be here so much that if the opportunity came, I would run for the hills." Bernard said as he continued to look at Chester as the water in the case was starting to go past Bernards knees.

"Three times now..." Chester said as he bit his lips.

"And three times now, I've proven my point." Bernard said as he looked at Chester.

"What point?" Chester said as Bernards words caught his attention.

"You're jealous of me and you're not that creative." Bernard said bluntly as Corvus and Vulp looked at him.

"Jealous?" Corvus said confused.

"Ha!" Chester exclaimed as Corvus and Vulp looked at him. "Jealous!? Forget "escape artists" and "ringmasters." You should be a comedian for the guild!" Chester said with a mocking tone.

"And now he is pretending to act like he doesn't care." Bernard said with a smirk as Chester stopped laughing and made an offended expression.

"And how am I possibly "jealous?" What do you have that I am possibly "jealous" of?!" Chester said as he approached the box with the water now starting to reach up to Bernards waistline as Corvus and Vulp started to feel the water on the bottom of their talons and paws, respectively, while in Bernards arms.

"Well let's see; I was featured in an article of Sorcerer Weekly for saving some lives in the capital. I am back at my families guild where most of the people here are happy to see me. I was also a better idea man than you and I probably wouldn't have let this place go to crap as badly as you and everyone else has." Bernard joked as Chester became more and more angry.

"Shut your douchebag mouth!" Chester said as he punched against the glass of the case.

"Oh, there it is." Bernard said as he looked at Chesters rage.

"...Do you know how hard this job is when you have to be the "replacement" guy to you?" Chester said with a stern look in his eyes as Bernard made a plain expression. "I had to scrape myself from the bottom of the barrel of the shows card with my act so I could be taken seriously. So everyone could see me as the show ringmaster and when I got to be the ringmaster, I was ecstatic." He explained.

"But everyone deep down still wished I was around, am I right?" Bernard replied as Chester continued to look at him with a face of disdain.

"I've heard about it the entire time I have been here for the past year. "The great Bernard O'Halloran, son of the guild master, the boy with the magical stone keeping his heart beating, the young circus genius." And I kept getting sicker and sicker the more I heard it..." Chester said as he walked away from the case as the trio listened as the water continued to rise.

"Oh come on, you can't hate someone you barely even know." Corvus said in response to Chesters anger.

"I can if it's someone I have to be compared to!" Chester said as he pointed at Bernard. "I can't do the "million and one" things he could do. The cleaning, the development on everyone's acts, the advertising, the planning, the prepping! I do jobs with my friends because I am a wizard too!" He ranted.

"Camilla said you were actually pretty good at being the ringmaster for the shows." Bernard said with interest as he looked at the angry Chester.

"Damn right!" Chester exclaimed with more and more fury. "You being here undermines me in every way... Every person in this guild was okay with me for the longest time but then you show up and remind people of what you could do and it pisses me off to kingdom come!" He continued to rant.

"Uhhhh kid?! Water's getting a bit close here!" Corvus said as he and Vulp stretched their heads up over the water to avoid going under.

"That's why I want to get rid of you! So no one can mess with my involvement! I won't let you steal my job!" Chester exclaimed with loud rage as veins started to pop on his skull.

_"I'm not even after your job... Crazy moron." _Bernard thought as he looked down at the water. "Hey Corvus, Vulp." He said as the Celestial Spirits looked at him.

"What!?" Corvus said as the water was getting starting to cause the Celestial Spirits to get slightly submerged.

"I am sorry..." Bernard said to the pair.

'"Sorry?"' Corvus questioned.

"Isn't it obvious? He is apologizing for being the one responsible for the mess he got you in!" Chester exclaimed in his anger with a smirk.

"Actually no." Bernard said in response, to Corvus and Chesters confusion. "I am apologizing for keeping secrets from you guys." He said as he looked at the pair as the water continued to rise. "And for lying and for being such a dick." Bernard said begrudgingly, not wanting to admit to his faults as Corvus and Vulp looked in surprise.

"W-wow... You are actually apologizing?" Corvus said in shock.

"Yup..." Bernard said as he looked at the crow.

"Well... I guess that's good that we can go back to the Celestial Spirit world knowing we don't hate each other." Corvus said as he looked at Vulp with a look of relief despite the fear of drowning.

"You guys ain't going back just yet. We have a fight on our hands." Bernard said while looking at Chester.

'"Fight?"' Chester said with confusion and bewilderment. "Has being in boxes and cages so much made you go crazy? You are going to drown and disappear!" Chester said with aggravation.

"No, what's going to happen is that we are going to get out of here and kick your ass." Bernard said as he held Corvus and Vulp who looked at Chester who was forming a look of agitation.

"What in the hell are you talking about!? I'll say it again so you morons can understand it clearly." Chester said as he approached the case once again. "You three will die!" He said with his hands against the glass.

'"Three?" I think you mean "four."' Bernard said with a smile.

_"Four? Wait... Him, me, Vulp and... Oh!" _Corvus thought for a bit as to what Bernard meant until he realized that it wasn't just the three of them inside the glass case. Looking at Bernards Lacrima, Corvus started to stretch his neck and attempted to inch closer to it.

With enough of a reach, Corvus proceeded to peck at Bernards pacemaker. Following a couple pokes, the Lacrima started to glow slightly before a liquid started to secrete from around the edges of where it was inserted and entered into the water. Chester, surprised by what was going on, looked around and noticed the water entering the case had begun to change colors. Once a clear fluid, the water in the case started to become a mixture of black, red and blue. Within the fluid, a set of green glowing eyes appeared, causing Chester to step back slightly in surprise as he was unsure of what he was seeing.

"Corvus! Vulp! Hold your breath!" Bernard said as he inhaled a deep breath as the Celestial Spirits followed suit as they dived into the fluid.

A crashing noise could be heard from the inside as loud thrashing and smashing was beginning to echo throughout the guildhall. With bone-like protrusions now starting to form inside the fluid and started to stab through the case, letting loose the fluid from inside. Glass shattering and breaking, the case was destroyed as the fluid started to break through at all angles. The liquid started to take shape as the liquid begun to form into a giant monstrous slime being as Formosa appeared with a large growl as the Celestial Spirits and Bernard, the beasts owner, had started to slump out of its massive form.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Chester said as he looked at the large monster.

"Blugh!" Bernard said as he and Corvus and Vulp slid out of Formosas massive slime body. Using the slime around his wrists, Bernard slipped his hands out of his cuffs as he started to rub his wrists. "Sweet freedom... Here, let me help you guys out." Bernard said as he walked over to the downed Vulp and Corvus to remove the collars around their necks.

"Ugh! Gross! I'm grateful for this thing saving my ass but I don't like being covered in its disgusting goop!" Corvus said as Bernard removed the collar around his neck. "Hey, wait... Why didn't you do that sooner!?" Corvus said as he looked at Bernard while he removed Vulps collar as Vulp shook off the slime.

"Wanted to wait until I got all the facts and apologized to you guys." Bernard said as he stood up before putting his hands on Corvus and Vulps heads. Letting loose some more of the energy from his body, Bernard gave more energy to Corvus and Vulp.

"Whoa! That's a strong boost!" Corvus said as he flapped his wings and his body starting to spark red and white electricity as Vulps fur around his body started to move on its own.

Turning towards the direction of Chester and walking underneath Formosa, the trio moved in front of Formosa as they looked at Chester.

"Wow..." Chester said with surprise as he looked at Bernard and his non-human allies.

"You want to apologize to us or should we save it for after we kick your ass?" Corvus said with an angry look in his eyes.

"Actually, that "wow" wasn't because I was impressed. Quite the contrary." Chester said as his surprise look turned into a confrontational expression as he pulled out a set of wooden crosses. "I looked at you as a nuisance and a problem but now... Now I can take you seriously." He said as his body started to glow with magic energy.

_"Looks like you want to fight... And I think I have you pegged on what you can do... Can't believe I am thinking this; but I think I am going to have some fun." _Bernard thought as he stared down Chester, ready for battle with his allies of Corvus, Vulp and Formosa.

* * *

**A glass box to fill up with water? What is this crap? Harry Houdini? After being placed in another box and complaining of constantly being shackled, the trio of Bernard, Corvus and Vulp were at the mercy of Chester Woodstock and his team of Gigantia and Silencio. But even with jealous rage seeping through Chesters body that was willing him along with his cruel plan to get rid of Bernard, you can't wash away certain issues without conflict. Especially when you are fighting someone who just happened to have a giant slime golem to assist. It's Bernard O'Halloran and his band of beasts vs Chester Woodstock next time on Menagerie! **

**(Authors Note: This chapter is blessingly short because of structural reasons, I am trying to write these chapters the way I want them to be and frankly, I have been writing very long chapters lately due to how I want to pace the story narratively to make it digestibly easier for readers to enjoy it. That being said, wow, this might be the first chapter in about four chapters I wrote Bernard as NOT being in cuffs or chains. I'm thankful for that, because I bet somebody out there had to notice that Bernard was locked up a lot since the train escapade lol) **


	16. Chapter 16

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tent House, 6:25 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Standing in a corner of her home was Camilla, dressed in her previous days attire, as she looked down at the mattress she had laid out for her captives Celestial Spirit allies for them to sleep on.

"...I'm going to break those stupid animals faces..." Camilla said aloud to herself as she looked at the mattress as she thought back to yesterday nights discussion with Bernard. _"Must've ran off with him... Damn it, I knew I should have just let him pee in the bathroom." _Camilla thought as she looked around.

Moving over to the closet of her home, she proceeded to open the door and looked down at the floor. On the floor of the closet was Bernards backpack that he had been lugging around for the past few weeks before his capture and return to the Psycho Circus guild. Reaching down, she proceeded to pull it out of the closet and took it over to the table in her home.

_"If he isn't carrying this around, then he must not be too far..." _Camilla thought as she lifted the backpack up and placed it on the table. _"Haven't had a moment to really look inside this thing... Maybe I can find something in here that will help me find where they went." _She thought as she opened up the backpack.

As she opened up the backpack, Camilla had started to dig around at the contents of Bernards luggage and started pulling out varies objects. Pairs of underwear, shirts, some snacks that had gone stale, an open jar of peppers, an assortment of spare beanie caps, among other things that Bernard had in his possession.

"Seriously need to talk to that boy about the stupid beanie obsession." Camilla said aloud to herself as she continued to rummage through Bernards backpack.

Reaching for a different compartment, she proceeded to unzip another fold of the backpack and reached in to find more objects.

_"Come on, I need to hurry up here and find something- Huh? What's this?" _Camilla thought as she pulled out an object from the other flap in the Bernards bag.

In her hand, Camilla pulled out a pair of small books. One was a small green book that looked like it was filled with additional pages and notes inserted into it while on top of it was the other book that was small and black that had a label that said "Day to Day Notes" on it.

_"The heck is this? A diary? He never kept one of these before." _Camilla thought to herself as she looked at the pair of books. Putting the hefty looking green one down on the table, Camilla proceeded to open up the black diary of Bernard. _"Okay, what do we have here?"_ She thought as she opened up to the first pages.

_"Day 1: I've arrived in Hargeon. I'm still tired from the train ride here but I am glad I got a room to stay in. I wouldn't call it a room though. It's more like a closet with a window." _Camilla thought as she mentally read the Bernards diary. "A closet... You were seriously living in a closet for two years... Bernard, are you kidding me?" Camilla said aloud to herself as she looked at the book, annoyed at Bernards decision.

_"Day 12: Starting to run out of money and I am not happy about it. I got to find some work real fast or I am going to lose my home. Again." _She continued to read. "You wouldn't need to worry about that if you had just stayed here!" Camilla shouted angrily to herself before going back to reading Bernards book.

_"Day 43: If I hear one more word from an annoying customer about finding a bug in their second hand clothes, I am going to strangle them with my belt. You are buying second hand clothes, someone had worn them already!" _She continued to read, now smirking slightly. "Okay that was a little funny..." Camilla said before stiffening her expression back to normal before skimming through to another page.

"_Day 57: The boredom is killing me, the lack of anything happening is starting to kill me..." _Camilla stopped reading for a minute to contemplate what she just read from his log. "Why did you leave? That's all I want to-... know..." Camilla said aloud as she looked at the rest of what Bernard wrote. _"I really miss my friends..."_ She read from the page.

Turning the page, becoming curious, Camilla started to look for more answers from Bernards journal. _"Day 58: I want to go home... I don't want to be here anymore... Hargeon is nice but... I just want a doughnut from Kiernan's Pastries..." _She read, starting to become more intrigued by the depressing notion of his entries. "Kiernan's in town makes the best doughnuts..." Camilla said to herself in an almost sympathetic tone.

"_Day 58: I want to go home... I want to go home... I want to go home... I want to go home..." _The page repeated the same entry over and over as Camilla became worried looking at the books entries. Flipping through several pages, she noticed the pages were starting to repeat the same phrase "I want to go home" over and over again until she found a page that didn't.

_"You wanted to come home... Yet you didn't... Why?" _Camilla thought as she skimmed through over several dozens of blank pages that Bernard didn't write in until she found a page he wrote on.

_"Day 739: Can't believe this but I am actually going on a trip. I met some friends but they are weird as hell. Never thought I'd see the day I would see a pair of Celestial Spirits that are stuck in the human world of all things. Because they refuse to go back. Trapped in a situation of their own choice... I can relate." _Camilla read some more, starting to form a smile. "Glad you at least made some friends..." She said to herself. _"Don't know how well this could go though if we can meet Lucy Heartfilia. It looks like Corvus hates her with a passion and blames her for the reason he and Vulp can't go back to the Celestial Spirit World. Wish I could blame someone other than myself for why I can't go home."_

Scratching her head as she read, she glanced over to the other book and noticed something peculiar about the label the book had. On the green book was a title that read; "Ideas for expanding Psycho Circus." Seeing the title, Camillas eyes widened as she was surprised by the label as she put down Bernards diary and picked up the other book.

_"A log book on Psycho Circus?" _Camilla thought as she opened up the other book, skimming through the pages and being surprised by the contents. "Ideas for Anatoli to try out with his acrobat routine... Stuff for Harriet to try with her beard hair... Ideas for a routine for Marlene with other dancers... Even an act for Nole and Andy and their act with their stomach..." Camilla said aloud in shock that Bernard was still coming up with ideas for the guild members acts for the shows.

_"You... Still cared..."_ Camilla thought as she flipped through the pages and stopped when saw a particular piece of paper wedged in-between like a bookmark. Pulling out the paper, she saw it was a photo of a group of people; a group of children and one adult.

Staring at the photo, Camilla recognized it as a photo of herself, Anatoli, Marlene and Bernard as children making goofy faces as a younger Pietro stood over them with a look of laughter in his face as the kids looked dumb. The sight of this prompted Camilla to form a small tear in her eye and a smile as she reminisced back to her childhood with her friends.

"I still don't know why you left..." Camilla said to herself as she wiped the tear from her eye. "But I should at least give you a second chance to explain." She said with a smile as she closed the log book and proceeded to turn towards the front door to her home and walked outside.

_"Okay, first I need to find some kind of trail in town that could lead me in the right- Huh?" _Camilla thought until she turned her head and looked at the water pump right next to her home that suspiciously had a hose attached to it and was pumping water through it. _"I don't remember having anything attached to the pump." _She thought as she started to follow the hose to where it went.

Stepping out of the woods next to the Psycho Circus guildhall, Camilla looked ahead and noticed the hose was feeding through the front door of the big top and into the guildhall. Looking over to the side, she spotted Silencio and Gigantia standing around next to the entrance.

"Seems a bit much, don'tcha think?" Gigantia said as she looked down from her massive height at her quiet partner as Silencio looked upward at her. "The old water escape trap thing and filling it up with water just to get rid of the guy. We could have just sent him on a train or something to the middle of nowhere." She continued as Silencio shrugged in response. "I like Chester but even I can admit, he seems a bit off his rocker right now."

_"The hell are they doing?"_ Camilla thought as she looked at the duo with suspicion. Approaching them, Camilla walked up to them as they looked at her approaching.

"Well, well, what are you doing up so early?" Gigantia said with a smirk as she looked at Camilla. _"Crap... Got to stall for time."_ She thought as she looked at Camilla with a suspicious look in her eyes.

"I can say the exact same thing to you..." Camilla said as she looked at Silencio who proceeded to look at her with confrontational eyes. "What's with that look he's giving me?" Camilla said as she turned towards Gigantia.

"Silencio doesn't talk usually thanks to that tape he likes to wear over his mouth but I think I can guess as to why he is giving you that look. He might be looking for a fight." Gigantia said with a smirk as she looked down at Camilla as she rolled her eyes.

"I do not need this right now." Camilla said to them sternly as she looked at the hose feeding into the guild. "Care to explain that?" Camilla said as she pointed at the hose.

"Don't know... It's coming from the water pump at your home. Maybe your little prisoner did it." Gigantia said as she came up with an excuse to buy time.

"Somehow I doubt that..." Camilla said as she stared at Gigantia.

"You know, I have always wanted to ask this of you." Gigantia said to Camilla.

"What?" Camilla responded.

"Chester has tried twice in the past year to try and become an S-class wizard and failed. The rule in the guild is that you can become an S-class wizard if you beat an S-class wizard in combat. Correct?" Gigantia questioned.

"Yes?" Camilla said, becoming concerned by her questions.

"Good to know..." Gigantia said as she suddenly raised her hand. As she lifted her hand, a yellow magic circle appeared below her feet as her hand proceeded to grow to an immense and gigantic size. "Then let me have my turn!" Gigantia shouted as she swung her giant open hand at Camilla.

_"Oh crap!"_ Camilla thought as she quickly put her arms up to block the giant open hand as a yellow barrier formed next to her in an attempt to block it. As the barrier formed, Camilla was protected from being slammed as she looked at the giant hand now smacked against the wall. _"Titan Magic... Magic that can grow ones size." _Camilla thought as she looked at her hand before turning her eyes towards Gigantia and Silencio.

"Nice block." Gigantia said as she lifted her leg and proceeded to attempt to front kick Camilla who put her arm up and formed another barrier panel to block her leg. The force of her kick caused Camilla to be pushed back away from the guildhall despite forming a barrier to protect herself from damage. "Again, another good one. No wonder you're S-class." She said with a smirk as Silencio and Gigantia made combative stances.

"What are you guys doing?!" Camilla shouted at the duo.

"Didn't you hear me? We are getting our shot at S-class!" Gigantia said with vigor as Silencio stepped forward.

"This is not how it works!" Camilla replied as she noticed Silencio standing in front of Gigantia, placing his hands together with his right hand in a fist on top of his left palm. _"Wait... I recognize that gesture. That's a Molding Magic pose!" _She thought as she looked at Silencio.

Placing his hands together, a white magic circle formed below Silencios feet as he moved his hands into a gesture as if holding a rifle in his hands. From where he was standing, the sound of an object being fired from a bow was heard as Camilla placed up her hands once again to form a barrier as a cracking indent was formed against her shielding.

_"What the heck?" _Camilla thought as she looked at the crack in her barrier. Placing her finger against the hole, she felt the end of a sharp object like an arrow against her index finger. _"This feels like a bolt from a crossbow but I didn't see the object he made..." _She thought as she looked at the duo.

"Confused?" Gigantia said, catching Camillas attention. "I was too originally until I got this one to explain it." She said as she pointed at Silencio who looked as if he was nocking an arrow back on an invisible crossbow. "It's called "Invisible-Make Magic." Perfect for the silent type like him, don'tcha think?" Gigantia said with a smirk on her face.

"Molding Magic for objects you can't see?" Camilla said with some surprise in her tone as Silencio fired another invisible arrow at Camillas barrier panel, leaving another cracking indent. _"Damn it! This is starting to really get on my nerves!" _She thought as she was getting angrier with Gigantia and Silencio pushing her around with their magic.

"Come on! Let's have a good old brawl!" Gigantia said as her hands started to glow and her fists grew to boulder-like proportions.

With a face full of irritation, Camilla relented to the request for a fight and proceeded to remove the light green flannel-like shirt over her upper body and proceeded to tie it around her waist with the sleeves. Putting her hands up in fists, light yellow orbs of energy proceeded to form around her clenched hands.

"There you go!" Gigantia said while making a similar fighting pose as Silencio proceeded to put his hands together in another Molding Magic pose. As Silencio begun to glow from another magic circle, Gigantia rushed at Camilla with one of her large arms cocked back for a strike.

Camilla, prepping for Gigantias fist, proceeded to cock back her own strike and launched her orb covered hand against Gigantias massive hand. Impacting against eachother, Gigantia felt the full impact of her hand striking against Camillas shielded hand.

"Guh!" Gigantia said as she reeled back slightly from the jolt of pain that went up her arm from striking against Camillas barrier-covered fist. _"Crap! I didn't think her barrier strike was going to be tougher than her normal panel barrier!" _Gigantia thought as she shrunk her hands back to normal and proceeded to rub her injured hand.

Turning her attention over to Silencio, Camilla noticed that Silencio was now starting to rush at her with his hands in a way that looked as if he was holding something similar to a bat or a sword. Placing her hands forward, Camilla proceeded to open her shielded palms as she grabbed the object that Silencio swung at her.

_"This feels like a sword..." _Camilla thought as she raised her leg and kicked back Silencio away from her while holding the invisible blade his magic made. Throwing it away, Camilla looked at the duo who were now slightly bruised from their individual attempts at attacks against her.

_"Damn it, she is tougher than I thought she'd be..."_ Gigantia thought as she looked at Camilla with Silencio, both sporting disgruntled looks on their faces.

"Are we done?" Camilla said to the two with anger in her tone, viewing the fight as an inconvenience.

"Oh hardly, we are just- What?!" Gigantia said until she was cut off by a sound that caught her, Silencio and Camillas attention.

Turning back towards the guildhall, Gigantia and Silencio heard the sound of glass shattering and a large monstrous growl that caught everyone off guard with surprise.

"What was that?! Oh no, Chester!" Gigantia said as she looked back towards the guildhall. Attempting to run to see what happened inside, Gigantia had stopped as she saw a large yellow panel formed in front of her as she and Silencio looked around and noticed a box-like structure form around the two of them and Camilla, prompting Gigantia to turn her attention back to Camilla.

"You ain't going anywhere! You two have some explaining to do." Camilla said with an angry look in her eyes as Silencio and Gigantia started to form expressions of worry from looking at her.

_"Damn it Chester! This was the best plan you could have come up with?! Leaving us to fight the S-class wizard?!"_ Gigantia thought as she swallowed spit while looking at Camilla who proceeded to form a fighting pose once again. In response, Silencio proceeded to form a Molding Magic sign again and rushed at Camilla.

Swinging his arms, as if holding a pair of bat or sword-like invisible weapons in both hands, Silencio swung at Camilla who proceeded to form a box-like barrier around herself for protection. Clanking against the box, Silencio proceeded to continuously slam the invisible weapons in his hands against her shielding but to no avail.

"Silencio! Move!" Gigantia exclaimed as she used her Titan Magic to increase the size of her hands and arms and stretched them over to where Camilla was standing inside her defensive box. "Get crushed, you stupid bitch!" She exclaimed as she proceeded to slam her hands together from both sides of where Camilla was standing, attempting to crush Camilla and her barrier.

_"Nice try..."_ Camilla thought as she stood in-between the incoming open hands about to crush her from the right and left. Cocking back both of her arms, and once again sealing her hands in barrier orbs, Camilla outstretched her fists into the open palms of Gigantias massive hands.

"Ahhhh!" Gigantia screamed in pain as she felt the barriered fists punch against the nerves in her hands, sending jolts of pain up through her hands as she recoiled in pain, shrinking her arms and hands back to normal as she fell to her knees.

Silencio, noticing Gigantias painful shrieking, turned to look towards his injured comrade. Turning back around, Silencios eyes widened in shock as Camilla rushed at him and proceeded to grab the piece of tape that was sealing his mouth from making sound. With a fast rip, Camilla yanked off the tape from around Silencios mouth.

"Gaaaahhh!" Silencio shouted violently, finally speaking as he felt the intense pain of having the tape over his lips be removed so quickly. "Oh crap! I'm speaking!" He muttered in shock as he felt the invisible objects in his hands disappear from his grasp. "Oh no! My weapons!"

"I figured this stupid tape over your mouth was related to your magic. You can't speak and use your Invisible-Make Magic at the same time I'm guessing?" Camilla said as she threw away the tape and walked towards Silencio.

"Wait! Can we talk about-Blurgh!" Silencio said until he felt the hard feeling of a foot hit him right below the jaw.

"Go back to being quiet!" Camilla said with fury in her voice as she kicked Silencio right in the chin with her foot covered in another barrier orb. With a hard impact, the kick caused him to fly up into the air and impacting on the ceiling of her barrier box arena that she had locked Silencio and Gigantia inside.

Falling back down from the top of the inside of the barrier arena, Silencio landed on his face and chest and had swirls in his eyes, signifying his inability to continue to fight against the S-class wizard. As she looked at the knocked out mime, Camilla proceeded to turn her attention to Gigantia who looked at her unconscious comrade with her mouth agape in shock.

_"She was this powerful the whole time?! No wonder Chester never beat her!" _Gigantia said in shock as Camilla approached the kneeling giantess. "I'm so sorry! Forgive me!" Gigantia said with tears in her eyes as she begged for Camilla not to hit her.

"Shut up!" Camilla exclaimed loudly as she slapped Gigantia in the face with her hand, knocking the giant woman to the ground. Grabbing her by her shirt, Camilla pulled Gigantia up from the ground to look her in the eyes.

"O-okay! It was Chester! He's at fault for this!" Gigantia exclaimed with fear in her voice, worry showing on her face as Camilla looked at her with a look of anger as the barrier arena around them started to disappear.

"Whatever! Just tell me what's going on in there now or I- Huh?" As Camilla started to interrogate Gigantia, a series of noises was starting to be heard from the inside of the guildhall, catching her attention.

Coming from the guildhall was the sound of loud screaming, fire burning, lightning noises, breaking and crashing. As Camilla looked at the guild, Gigantia started to channel her magic once again and attempted to try and increase her hands.

Camilla, looking down and noticing Gigantia was attempting use her magic, proceeded to place a barrier orb over one of her hands once again and slapped Gigantia in the face, knocking her out.

"Stupid giant woman..." Camilla said to herself as she looked at the unconscious Gigantia. _"Now... What's going on in there." _Camilla thought as she looked at the guildhall and continued to hear loud thrashing noises coming from inside.

* * *

**Some truths you need to find by yourself in order to learn what you need to know. For Camilla, she had accomplished learning a little of the truth behind Bernards running away from home but her attempts to find him and his Celestial Spirit friends only led to her running into the other two thirds of Team Woodstock; Gigantia and Silencio. After a confrontation and learning that they were up to something, Camilla defeated the giantess and the mime and now has her sights set on figuring out what is happening inside the guildhall where Bernard and Chester are. Next time, the fight with Chester and Bernard! On Menagerie! **

**(Authors Note: Hey, sorry for the fake out and expecting to see Bernard and Chester fight here but I felt like putting a chapter that showed off Camilla in action as well as the other two members of Team Woodstock in a brawl. Also to mend any confusion for this chapter, the events of this chapter happen at the same time as when Bernard and Chester fight in the next chapter as well as the conversation between the two in the previous chapter. See you all next time.)**


	17. Chapter 17

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guildhall, 7:15 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Requip!" Chester shouted whilst glowing with magical energy around his body as he held up his marionette crosses.

_"I can guess what you are Requiping…"_ Bernard thought as he looked at Chester as he stood ready with Corvus, Vulp and Formosa.

"Come forth; "Tiny!"' Chester exclaimed as a magic circle formed and a large humanoid object appeared from it.

It stood several feet tall, roughly an inch less in height than the massive slime demon Formosa. Made of extremely thick wood, it appeared to have bulging carved out muscles that were covered by a large red sweater-like shirt and brown pants covering its massive frame. Most notable feature that it sported, however, was its incredibly tiny head on its extremely large and wide body. Attached to its limbs were several wires that were extending out of the wooden crosses in Chesters hands.

"That's a big puppet!" Corvus exclaimed with surprise as he looked up at the large wooden behemoth with the tiny head.

"This is "Tiny." He's one of my puppets I have specially made and stored in my Requip." Chester said with an angry confidence as he started to move his arms and the strings attached to the giant puppet named Tiny, controlling its movements and making it rush at Bernard and his allies.

"Crap! Corvus, Vulp! Get out of the way!" Bernard shouted, barking a command at the Celestial Spirits.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Corvus exclaimed as he flew up high and Vulp jumped out of the way of the incoming giant wooden marionette.

"Formosa!" Bernard said as energy started to seep out of his body and into Formosa, allowing it to move. "Stop that thing from attacking us!" He shouted as the big slime golem outstretched its arms.

The slimy hands of Formosa made contact with the equal sized giant wooden hands of Tiny as the two giants locked their fingers and begun to pit their strengths against eachother.

"Your dim fluid giant is no match for my puppet!" Chester exclaimed as he swung his arms around and controlled Tinys actions. Using his arms, Tiny pushed harder against Formosa, causing the giant slime monster to reel back slightly.

_"Crap, I can't give Formosa too much energy or I'll pass out in the middle of the fight. It's not pushing hard enough because I can only give it so much of my own power. I got to figure out a way to stop this thing and recall Formosa soon." _Bernard thought as he watched Formosa struggle against Tiny. Looking at Tiny to see if he could find a weak spot, Bernard looked around at the upper body.

"Kid! I'm going to fire a bolt at that thing and-" Corvus exclaimed in the air as Bernard spoke up to stop him.

"No, wait! I have an idea! Formosa!" Bernard said as he barked a command towards Formosa. "Melt down into the puppets joints and bind it to prevent its movements!" He said as Formosa obeyed and started to melt its body down into a mass of gelatinous goop.

As the hand grips on Formosa by Tiny started to come undone, Formosa started to slink up the body of the giant puppet and proceeded to go underneath the clothes over the wooden behemoth and start to lock in the various areas of its limbs.

"Damn it! Tiny!" Chester exclaimed in surprise as he attempted to control Tinys movements in an effort to get it to still move but to no avail as Tiny fell over with Formosas viscous liquid dripping off its body.

"Formosa! Stay on that thing and keep it from moving!" Bernard said, commanding Formosa to maintain its hold.

"Tch!" Chester clicked his tongue in frustration as he detached the wires off of Tinys body.

"Nice work kid!" Corvus said from up high in the air as he looked down.

"Don't go celebrating yet! We took down just one of those marionettes..." Bernard said as he looked at Chester who was radiating magical energy once again.

"Once again... You guessed correctly..." Chester said while sounding like he was losing control of his ability to keep calm. "You have only three of these creatures to fight with and once I get rid of them, you'll have nothing left to protect yourself... And I have many puppets to wear them down!" He said furiously as he summoned out two more magic circles.

"Another stupid Requip huh? Bring it on then!" Corvus said as he begun to spark up red and white electricity and Vulp proceeded to move forward with his fur moving around his tail and beginning to spike into various blade-like tendrils.

"Oh? Does the chicken want a nice cooking?" Chester said in a voice that sounded jokingly and aggravated.

"Oh I am going to zap you to kingdom come!" Corvus exclaimed furiously as he started to spark more electricity.

Following Corvus' angry statement, out from one of Chesters magic circles came another puppet. Dressed in a green suit-like outfit, this puppet was the size of that of a normal human being around Chester and Bernards height. On the top of the puppets head was a metal helmet with a large spike on top and sported one normal left hand whilst its right hand looked like a cannon with a series of red glowing Lacrima around it.

"Meet "Torch."' Chester said with a smirk as his wires from his crosses slinked towards the puppet and begun to make it start to move.

"Guessing the gems around its cannon wrist aren't for show?" Bernard said with a serious look.

"Same goes for you that little rock in your chest." Chester said as he pointed at Bernards upper body as Bernard put his hand on his left side where his heart was.

Out from the other magic circle was another puppet but with a more menacing appearance. Sporting a white wooden finish and a long white wig on its head, it was dressed in a long back coat and a black brim hat with a disturbing grin on its face. Instead of hands, sticking out of the sleeves of the coat, were instead a bladed hook and on the other hand was an axe-like blade.

_"That looks creepy..." _Bernard thought as he looked at the unsettling bladed marionette.

"This one is "Slice." Chester said with a confident and anger fueled look in his eyes. Twisting his wrists and controlling the puppets he summoned, Chester caused Torch and Slice to jump towards Bernards direction.

"Gotcha kid!" Corvus exclaimed as Corvus and Vulp proceeded to tackle the two puppets to protect Bernard. Continuing to shift his wrists, Chester commanded Slice to hook its bladed hook around Vulp and proceeded to throw Vulp high into the air, landing on one of the wooden trusses above the guildhall that were holding up the big top with the bladed puppet jumping up to the same area Vulp was.

As Slice proceeded to lift its bladed upper body appendages, Vulp had started to channel his magic and his tail proceeded to turn into a series of bladed spikes, ready to fight. Down on the ground, Corvus continued to stay on top of the cannon-sporting puppet as he watched Vulp and Slice go against each other until Corvus noticed its cannon arm begun to point him.

"Oh crap!" Corvus exclaimed as he noticed fire had started to form inside the cannon that was pointing at him, prompting him to take flight to avoid getting burned. As the flames came out in a burning torrent, Corvus proceeded to get some distance from Torch. _"This puppet can use Fire Magic?!"_ The crow thought nervously.

As Torch shifted its wooden body to a standing position, it proceeded to point its fire cannon at Corvus as Corvus proceeded to dodge the various torrents of flames it shot at him.

"Corvus! Shoot back some lightning!" Bernard shouted towards Corvus as a suggestion.

"I would love to! But this stupid block of wood keeps shooting at me!" Corvus complained loudly as he flew down to dodge Torch's flame throwing.

"Do a tackle then!" Bernard suggested as Corvus proceeded to take the opportunity and proceeded to headbutt Torch, sending the puppet careening into one of the guildhalls wooden tables, breaking the table down into scrap.

"Take that asswipe- oh crap..." Corvus said until he noticed the puppet was starting to slowly get back up after getting knocked into the table, standing in the middle of the wreckage and pointing its fire cannon back at Corvus again. "Not again!" Corvus exclaimed as he noticed fire building up once again in Torchs flamethrower.

In response, Corvus channeled his Lightning Magic as red and white lightning was beginning to form around his body as a bolt of lightning came flying out and towards Torch as the fire spewing puppet fired another torrent of flame at Corvus. The multicolored lightning impacted against the fire wave as the two attacks formed a small explosion within the Psycho Circus guildhall.

'"Gaah!"' Bernard, Chester and Corvus exclaimed as the smoke spread around them from the explosion. As the dust settled, Torch was still standing despite some of the clothes the puppet was wearing being slightly ripped off, revealing the brown wood that made up its body.

"Seriously?!" Corvus shouted in disbelief as he looked at the puppet that was giving him trouble.

"Takes a lot more than that, you stupid bird!" Chester said with fury as his puppet lifted its cannon arm once more and fired at Corvus again, causing the crow to once again attempt to dodge.

_"Damn it, we are at a standstill right now!" _Bernard thought as he looked up at Corvus dodging the fire attacks. _"If I could just get those stupid wooden crosses out of his hands, he can't fight back with the puppets anymore..."_ He thought as his stares at Chester caught the puppet masters attention.

"What's wrong Bernard?! Don't have a friend to play with of your own?!" Chester said as magic started to expunge from himself yet again as a magic circle appeared once more.

"Another one?!" Bernard exclaimed in surprise as he watched the magic circle summon another puppet.

It wore a cowboy-like outfit with a black vest, blue pants, a long white sleeved shirt, a large ten gallon hat and a red bandanna around its mouth. Visually, it looked human but was notable about this puppet was that it didn't just have a single set of arms but rather, it had three. With six arms and six hands, each one held a magic pistol akin to those used by wizards skilled with Gun Magic.

"Meet "Six Shot." And this one is just dying to play with you!" Chester exclaimed wildly as the strings from his crosses stretched out once again and attached to Six Shot, moving the puppets limbs and pointing its six pistols towards Bernard.

_"Oh crap!" _Bernard thought as he rushed over to one of the guilds wooden tables. Lifting it up slightly and flipping it over, Bernard had ducked behind the overturned table to use for cover as Six Shot begun to fire at him.

A barrage of bullets flew towards Bernards direction as he hid behind the cover he had made with holes forming left and right on the table from Six Shots gunfire.

_"Okay, glad to know he isn't using Magic Bullets..."_ Bernard said as he noticed the rounds hitting his makeshift barrier were normal ball rounds and not those of the magical variety. _"I gotta think... We're outnumbered, Corvus is having trouble with the flamethrower puppet, Formosa is stuck trapping the golem puppet and I got a cowboy spider man shooting at me... Wait a minute... Am I forgetting something?"_ Bernard thought as he quickly looked up towards the wooden truss above the guildhall big top.

High above the ground floor of the guild, Vulp was locking blades with the creepy bladed puppet named Slice. With his tail in the form of a large broadsword-like blade, Vulp continually blocked the swings from the bladed hands of Slice as the puppet continued to swing wildly.

After the next swing, Slice attempted to use the opportunity to try and rush at Vulp and go for a downward slash on the fox until Vulp proceeded to move his paws upwards and with magic coursing through his fur, his paws expanded in size and caught the bladed hand of the puppet. With his free tail, Vulp took his bladed tail and swung it up slammed the blade into Slices wooden head and splitting it in two.

"Oh, I saw that! You stupid mutt!" Chester exclaimed as he looked up at Vulp starting to destroy his puppet. Twisting his wrist, Chester forced the remaining parts of Slices body on top of Vulps body, making the fox Celestial Spirit start to lose his balance on top of the truss.

_"Wait... That might work!" _Bernard thought as he looked at Vulp getting tangled up in Slices wooden remains. "Vulp! Jump!" Bernard shouted towards Vulp as Vulp looked down and noticed he was above Chester.

Taking a leap of faith while tangled up, Vulp jumped down with the remains of Slice towards Chester as Chester noticed the fox Celestial Spirit was heading down straight towards him. Bracing for impact, Chester was hit by the force of Vulp and his puppet knocking into him.

Hit to the side, Chester flew into another table in the guildhall with Vulp and Slice wrapped up in the wreckage of the table. As Chester flew, the wires that were attached to Torch and Six Shot caused the puppets to be flung back and towards the wreckage where Vulp and Chester were.

As Torch went flying back, its cannon continued to shoot more fire and managed to singe Corvus' right wing.

"Gah!" Corvus exclaimed as he felt his wing get burned slightly as he flew down to the guilds bar area and quickly grabbed one of the seltzer bottles behind the bar and spritzed it on his wing to stop the burning. "Oh thank the stars!" The crow exclaimed in relief as the puppets flew back and hit Chester.

"Blarh!" Chester exclaimed in pain as the puppets landed on him and made him drop his crosses from his hands. As Bernard watched where Chester landed, he decided to take this opportunity to rush towards where Chester was and tried to grab at Chesters crosses.

Chester, pushing Vulp and his puppets off of his body within the wreckage, noticed that Bernard was trying to grab his crosses and tried to go rush to grab it as well.

Beating Chester to the crosses, Bernard grabbed the crosses and threw them at one of the guilds support beams and breaking them on impact.

"Crap!" Chester exclaimed as he looked at his crosses destroyed on the guild floor.

"Looks like there won't be anymore of your annoying puppets..." Bernard said with a tone of exhaustion as he looked at Chester.

"...That's what you think." Chester said under his breath as he reached his hands down and grabbed the strings his crosses were originally attached to. Swinging his strings up, The wires proceeded to go around Bernards neck and begin to choke him as Bernard was caught off guard by the feeling of the wires pressing down on his throat.

"Glahgh!" Bernard exclaimed in pain as he scratched at the wires to try and remove them from his neckline. _"Crap, he can still control the wires?!" _Bernard thought in surprise.

"I don't need those crosses just to be able to use the threads!" Chester said in anger as he twisted his threads around Bernards neck.

"Damn it!" Bernard said as he started to gasp for air as the threads were crushing his windpipe. _"This is killing me!... I can't win a fist fight given my condition... But..." _Bernard thought until he locked eyes with Chester who was surprised with the angry look Bernard was giving him as Bernard rushed at him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Chester said repeatedly as he saw Bernard run at him. Leaping at him, Bernard tilted his head forward and headbutted Chester against the bridge of his nose and loosened his wired grip on Bernards throat.

"Argh!" Chester exclaimed in pain as he clutched at his nose that was starting to bleed from the headbutt as Bernard started to remove the thread around his neck and threw it to the side. Taking a deep breath for air, Bernard then proceeded to quickly rush at Chester and tackled him to the ground.

"Suck on this, you piece of crap!" Bernard exclaimed loudly as he mounted Chester and cocked back one of his fists and punched Chester in the side of his face. As he prepared to cock another fist back, Chester, on the ground, swung the back of one of his fists against Bernards face and knocking him off.

"The only piece of crap around here is you!" Chester shouted as he tried to get up as Bernard started to get up as well. Rushing at Bernard, Chester had pushed Bernard against one of the guildhall support beams and started to punch Bernard in the abdomen repeatedly.

"Rurgh!" Bernard exclaimed in pain as Chester punched him in the stomach. Lifting his arm back, Bernard struck his elbow into Chesters backside and pushed Chester off of him. Now with some distance between eachother, Bernard rushed at Chester once again and Chester cocked back his fist to punch him but Bernard ducked out of the way and raised his knee up and struck him with his knee in the chin, furthering the distance by pushing him back further.

_"Definitely not the most refined fight I've seen two people have..." _Corvus thought as he watched Bernard and Chester continue to strike eachother while looking from the guild bar.

Following another series of strikes on eachother, Bernard and Chester noticed some of the broken wood and shrapnel that was scattered all over the guild floor from the previous fight between Bernards beast allies and Chesters puppets and noticed that they were both near one of the arms of Slice, the bladed puppet. Bernard picked up the arm that was shaped like an axe while Chester picked up the bladed hook arm that were originally attached to the puppet.

_"Oh no... They're gonna kill eachother with those things!" _Corvus thought as he looked from the bar until something caught his attention. "Huh? What's that?" Corvus said to himself as he looked up towards the ceiling and noticed a small figure standing on the wooden truss of the guildhall.

"Once I am done with you... I'm going to take that stupid thing out of your body and make some decent money to fix up this mess you made..." Chester said angrily as he and Bernard circled eachother while holding the bladed arms, pointing at Bernards Lacrima pacemaker.

"And it's probably a mess you won't do a good job of cleaning up either like the rest of the problems around here!" Bernard exclaimed loudly in similar anger.

"I am the ringmaster of the show around here! I don't need to be the janitor too!" Chester shouted.

"Yet it doesn't seem like you pull your weight around here in general!" Bernard said, criticizing Chester.

"I am so going to kill you!" Chester shouted with wild eyes and gritting his teeth.

"You first!" Bernard said with a similar expression.

Rushing at eachother with the blades, Bernard and Chester prepared to stab one another until a voice spoke up that caught their attention.

"Shows over gentlemen!" Said a familiar voice that caught the two off guard as a magic circle formed beneath the two battling young men. Looking down, Chester and Bernard noticed something form out of the magic circle.

From the ground, a giant set of pink fluffy hands had emerged from the ground as the soft palms wrapped around Bernard and Chester. A tight squeeze on both of them had made the two drop their blades as the soft substance wrapped around their bodies and caused them to both fall to the floor.

"The hell is this stuff?!" Chester exclaimed angrily as he flailed in its grasp.

"Wait... This is... Cotton candy?" Bernard said in confusion as he smelled the substance wrapped around himself.

"What an entertaining performance gentlemen!" Said the familiar voice once again as clapping was heard and prompting Bernard, Chester, Corvus and Vulp to turn their heads upward. "However..." The voice said as the individual sitting on the truss above the guild jumped down and landed on the floor of the guildhall and walked over to the downed young men. "I don't think a fight club works as a part of the guilds show." The short bowling pin shaped individual joked as Chester and Bernard looked in surprise.

"M-Ma-Master Barnum!?" Chester exclaimed in surprise with sweat dripping off his head.

"Were you watching the whole time?!" Bernard shouted in surprise.

"Yes! And it was quite the entertaining tussle!" Master Barnum said with a smirk as he looked around at the damage Bernard and Chester did to the guild hall. "Oh, I have been wondering about this thing!" He exclaimed exclaimed with interest as he walked over to where Formosa was as it was still holding down the giant golem puppet, Tiny, sticking its slime head out of one of the joints in the puppet. "I was wondering where you kept this thing when you came back, Bernie."

"Is this one of your stupid carnival trick spells?!" Bernard said as he rustled around on the ground as he looked at the cotton candy wrapped around his body.

"Indeed! Can't go having any murders in my guildhall after all!" Master Barnum said jokingly as he turned back towards the boys. "Besides, someone might be upset if there was some death in here." Barnum said as he pointed his cane out towards the guild entrance as a familiar figure came rushing into the guild.

Panting with exhaustion, Camilla had entered the guildhall to look at the damage to the Psycho Circus guild as well as when she looked down and saw Bernard and Chester with heavy amounts of wounds all over their bodies from their fight.

"Now then everybody..." Master Barnum said as he looked at Camilla, who was looking at Barnum with some confusion. "Let's have a little chat."

* * *

**Blade on blade, fire versus oddly colored lightning, slime thing vs puppet golem, man vs... man with heart condition. The Psycho Circus guildhall has seen its share of destructive behavior as Bernard and Chester fought eachother with the powers they had at their disposal, almost to the point of even killing one another. Chesters puppets fought toe to toe with Bernards beastly allies but soon after, it boiled down to the two mens' fists. With an audience of one guild master, Barnum, stopping the fight before more bloodshed had occurred. Who knows what the usually jovial guild master of Psycho Circus has to say to Bernard and Chester with Camilla in the room as well. Find out next time on Menagerie!**

**(Heeeyyy what's up, it's me. And I am sorry for taking so long. I was on vacation this past week and I couldn't find the time to write this chapter any faster than normal and even with it being as short as it is because I was trying to relax but hey, thanks for sticking by and being patient. It goes a long way to me. Also thank you to the reviewers, I love the people chatting about the story in the review section. See you next time.)**


	18. Chapter 18

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guildhall, 9:00 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Here, let me see." Camilla said with concern in her voice.

Sitting down on one of the guildhalls wooden tables that was intact was Bernard, still shirtless and covered in bruises, as he was slumped over looking at the ground. In front of him was Camilla, worried over his condition following his fight that destroyed some of the internal parts of the Psycho Circus guildhall, as she checked his body.

Following the battle between Bernard and Chester, several members of the Psycho Circus guild had arrived over time to see the damage that was caused from the brawl between Bernard and his beastly allies and Chester and his puppet servants. Anatoli, Marlene, Pietro, amongst others, had arrived and begun to try and clean up the wood, glass and damage to the support beams.

"Okay, you got some wounds from the punches and I checked your pulse, you aren't in any trouble internally I'm guessing." Camilla said as she looked over Bernard as he attempted to look away from her. "Come on, it's going to be hard for me to help if you don't look at me." She said with concern as she put her hands on Bernards cheeks and made him look her in the eyes.

"...Man, this is some mess." Anatoli said as he looked at the damage to the guildhalls tables. "The old water escape tank thing was even destroyed." He continued as he floated on his googly-eyed ball over the shattered glass from the tank.

"Bar is still intact. That's a good thing." Marlene said as she looked around from behind the guilds bar.

"Thanks for coming in as usual guys..." Camilla said as she stood over the seated Bernard.

"It's no trouble but..." Pietro said as he walked over to Camilla and Bernard while holding a broom. "What about them?" He continued as he pointed at a corner of the guildhall.

In the corner of the guildhall was three individuals trapped in three clear separate magical boxes Camilla had made using her Barrier Magic. Inside were Chester Woodstock, Gigantia and Silencio, who now had his tape back on his lips, kept as prisoners for what their actions. Gigantia and Silencio exuded expressions of regret on their faces but Chester made a face of exhaustion and aggravation in contrast.

"...Am I not going to get any treatment?" Chester said annoyed as he looked at Camilla treating Bernard.

"No. You are going to sit there and wait." Camilla said as she glared at Chester who glared back at her.

"Chester! Stop pissing her off!" Gigantia screamed at her comrade to avoid getting the other members of the guild mad at them.

"And why not!?" Chester said, raising his voice. "I am angry and fed up just looking at this scenario play out!" He said as he pointed at Bernard.

Bernard, trying to stretch his shoulders to remove some of the strain on his body, then proceeded to try and sit up as he looked at Camilla as Pietro, Anatoli and Marlene walked over to the boxes.

"Hey..." Bernard spoke up, catching Camillas attention as she looked down at him sitting down. "I just want... I mean, I... Well..." He said, having trouble trying to form a sentence before he noticed she stopped him from speaking.

"It's okay... We can talk about everything later." Camilla said with a concerned look before hardening her expression as she turned towards the captive boxes. "Just stay still and relax." She said as she walked away towards the others.

Turning his head, Bernard looked to see his father, guild master Barnum, was sitting on the table he was seated at and messing around with Corvus and Vulp.

"So you two are Celestial Spirits? "Seeing stars" a common thing for your kind? Hahaha!" Master Barnum poorly joked to his own amusement.

"Your jokes are going to make me hurl..." Corvus said with disgust as he listened to Bernards father make his terrible jokes with Vulp looking at him with similar distaste.

"I make people vomit from my humor all the time. The reaction is just as hilarious as my jokes!" Master Barnum said with a smirk as he looked to the side and saw Bernard looking at him and the Celestial Spirits. "Oh, there's the man of the hour." He said as Corvus and Vulp looked and quickly rushed over to Bernards side.

"Kid!" Corvus said as he flew over and landed on Bernards shoulder. Following suit, Vulp jumped to the seated area of the table and proceeded to lay himself on Bernards lap.

"You guys okay?" Bernard said as he brushed his hand over Vulps fur.

"Oh yeah, we're mostly fine but what about you? You look like you lost a fight..." Corvus said as he looked around at Bernards body while perched on his shoulder.

"I wouldn't say he lost it." Master Barnum said as he got the trios attention. "It was more like a tie if I were to be a fight critic." He continued with a smirk to Bernards chagrin.

"I don't care about winning or losing any fights..." Bernard said as he looked at the ground with a tired expression.

"It doesn't matter, you're alive. That's the important thing." Corvus said as he looked at Bernard.

"Welp, time to do some guild master duty! Ta-ta for now!" Master Barnum said as he got up from off the table. Unbeknownst to Bernard, however, was that as his oddly shaped father had left something on the table next to Bernard, Corvus and Vulp. _"That's bound to put some pep in his step."_ He thought as he started skipping away.

"Your dad is weird..." Corvus said as he looked at Master Barnum skip over to where the other members of the guild are with the captives.

"So what did I miss?" Master Barnum says to Marlene as Camilla and Pietro interrogated Chester and his comrades.

"So far, not much... They just keep arguing." Marlene whispered to Master Barnum.

"That wasn't your decision to make!" Camilla shouted, catching Master Barnum and Marlenes attention.

"He hadn't been punished for what he did so I took it upon myself!" Chester retorted in an aggressive manner.

"We were working on it!" Camilla replied back.

"He has been in our guild for two days! Regardless of the fact he still has our guild logo, he doesn't want to be here so why even keep him around!?" Chester responded as Camilla locked eyes with Chester. As they stared eachother down, Pietro motioned towards Gigantia and Silencio.

"What about you two?" Pietro said with curiosity. "What's your role in all of this?"

"Look, we said to Chester we didn't want to do something as drastic as what he suggested but we went along with it because Chester said his plan was "fool proof." We don't even hate the guy!" Gigantia said in her and Silencios defense.

"That so? You still tried to fight Camilla to prevent her from getting inside to stop him." Pietro questioned.

"We... were just following Chesters orders..." Gigantia said with a tone of regret as Silencio looked away with embarrassment over the situation.

"And look what happened..." Camilla said as she turned her attention towards Gigantia.

"Guh…" Gigantia grunted in hesitation from Camillas angry glare.

"It was my decision... Leave them out of it..." Chester said, catching Camillas attention to defend his group.

"And why should I be lenient?" Camilla said as she stared down Chester. "You weren't towards Bernard or his pets."

"You all have been lenient towards him! Letting him stay here and doing nothing about him running away and abandoning the guild!" Chester said angrily inside the box barrier until Anatoli spoke up.

"You can't just decide for yourself that he is punishable by death! It's the guild masters decision!" Anatoli said.

"Someone say my title?" Master Barnum said jokingly as he put his hand behind one of his ears as members of the guild groaned from the unfunny nature of his joke.

"Master Barnum, I am the ringmaster of Psycho Circus! And that punk hasn't done a thing for this guild in two years! He can't perform, he isn't a wizard and regardless of the fact he is your son, he isn't needed around here!" Chester exclaimed his grievances about Bernard.

"Very true." Master Barnum said, prompting some of the members of the guild to look at him with confusion and surprise. "He hasn't done any real work for the guild in a good amount of time and he isn't currently a wizard either."

"Master!?" Camilla exclaimed in surprise as Master Barnum agreed with some of Chesters points.

"However, I do disagree with the idea that he isn't needed around here. Or that he isn't welcome here." Barnum said as he approached Chester in his box.

"Wha-what's that supposed to mean…" Chester said with fearful hesitation.

"Bernard has a guild logo for Psycho Circus on him, which makes him a member of our troupe. And for the past two years, members of the guild were curious where he was because he has been with us since he was born and some of us were worried." Master Barnum said as his eyes glossed over towards Camilla who proceeded to look away from the look he was giving. "He was our janitor and our advertiser and our manager. They're very important jobs to have in a wizards entertainment guild such as ours." Master Barnum explained.

"He also had my job..." Chester said with anger in his tone as he clenched his fists.

"Indeed. I was the ringmaster before Bernard took over for me when he was fifteen years old. It was a bit of an odd decision when I was younger to make him have the job but he did a fine job with the heavy workload he had." Barnum said as he glanced back towards Bernard as he sat with Vulp and Corvus at the table.

"Any idea what they are talking about?" Corvus said to Bernard as he and Vulp sat at the table.

"Don't know... Can't hear it from over here..." Bernard said tiredly as he attempted to ignore the crowd of his guildmates. _"I'm freaking beat..."_ Bernard thought in his exhaustion.

"Yeah me neither. You should get some rest kid, you look like death knocked on your door." Corvus said as he and Vulp looked at his face as Bernard laid his head on the table.

"Always thought I would have died from my heart giving out and not from a fist fight if my old man didn't show up there..." Bernard said, continuing to sound fatigued.

"I'd bet- Huh? What's this?" Corvus said until he turned his head around and looked on the side of the table.

"What?" Bernard said as he and Vulp looked over at what Corvus was looking at.

On the side of the table was a large stack of papers, left behind by the guild master Barnum O'Halloran. Reaching over with one of his wings, Corvus proceeded to pick up one of the pieces of paper and begun to read it to himself.

"Let me guess... One of my dad's old jokes he wrote down?" Bernard said with a cringe as he continued to lay his head on the table.

"No, it's a flier. For one of those "show" things." Corvus said as he showed the flier to Vulp.

"Oh, it's probably one of Psycho Circus' extra fliers for when we are advertising around town and other places." Bernard said.

"Huh, that's weird." Corvus said as he looked at the flier. "This advertisement looks old." The crow continued as it caught Bernards attention.

'"Old?"' Bernard said as he sat up. "What do you mean "old?"' He said with curiosity.

"The ink is slightly faded and there isn't any prick marks for it to be held up anywhere on it. Like it hasn't been touched much at all." Corvus said as he looked at the flier. As he said that, Bernards eyes started to widen with surprise and confusion as he looked at Corvus speak as Vulp looked at Bernards expression.

"Corvus..." Bernard said slowly and cautiously. "What is the date for that flier..." He questioned to the crow who proceeded to look around the paper for the date of the show.

"Uhhhh… Oh, here it is. Three days from now." Corvus said as Bernards eye twitched. "Why's that import- Hey?!" Corvus said until he was caught off guard by Bernard swiping the paper out from his winged grasp. "Whats the big idea?!" The crow complained as he looked at Bernard reading over the flier with a surprised look in his eyes.

_"T-This... This is the flier for the next show... It's in three days and it's all faded like it hasn't been put up anywhere for people to grab it." _Bernard thought in his head with a twitch in his eye. _"Wait... No one was practicing yesterday... and this show is that close... No updated routines... And no one... Advertised?!" _As Bernard was thinking, his body started to shake as the paper in his hands started to become crumpled and torn slightly from the actions he was making.

"K-kid?" Corvus asked with concern as he and Vulp looked at Bernard, the tired expression he had being replaced with one that was exuding an uncontrollable amount of rage.

Meanwhile, back in the group interrogating Team Woodstock, Chester spoke up.

"I know why he is here! I know everyone heres true feelings about me! He's my replacement!" Chester shouted angrily to the group. "He was brought back to replace me because everyone here is always complaining about how I can't do a million and one things like that asshole can!"

"You seriously attempted to kill him because of that?!" Camilla shouted back in disbelief.

"I care about this guild more than he does! I showed up the entire time the guild needed me! I always came back from jobs in time for practice!" Chester defended himself.

"You haven't helped anyone clean this place up and everyone's acts are behind on any kind of updates or improvements! That's on you!" Camilla criticized as she turned her attention towards Gigantia and Silencio. "And what about you two?!"

"Y-yes?" Gigantia said hesitantly.

"What even are your acts?!" Camilla said, looking for a potential answer.

"Well... We have been doing a ton of missions with Chester and we have been taking the nights off during the shows and-" Gigantia tried to explain until she noticed Camilla slammed her hand against the box she was stuck in.

"You two don't even have an act, don't you?" Camilla asked as she came to a conclusion as Silencio and Gigantia looked down at the ground with defeated looks on their faces.

"N-no... We don't... We haven't been able to come up with anything to contribute..." Gigantia said with tears in her eyes as she and Silencio admitted to their lack of performance ideas for the Psycho Circus guilds show.

"Seriously!?" Pietro exclaimed with surprise.

"How can you guys not have any acts?! Even Chester had an act with his puppets!" Marlene replied in shock.

"Chester said he would help us but... He always said he was busy and we just went on job requests with him to make money..." Gigantia explained.

"Just because I am the ringmaster doesn't mean I have to baby everyone here and come up with everything! You could have done it yourself!" Chester said in his defense until he noticed Silencio removed the tape over his mouth to speak.

"Yeah but- ow! God, that hurt!" Silencio was going to speak but the tape over his mouth gave him a harsh pain over his lips as he pulled it off slightly. "What I was trying to say was, everyone here said the ringmaster usually helps with people's acts on stage so they were expecting you to do it behind the scenes as well."

"I try to juggle doing missions and performing every three weeks! It's a lot of work!" Chester shouted in his defense. "I can't do a million things at once like everyone claimed that punk over there could do! And you even planned to make him the guild master even!"

_"...It is a lot of work..." _Camilla thought as she listened to Chesters answers.

"And you brought him back here to replace me as the ringmaster! And throw me and all the work I did helping this guild out like yesterdays trash! It might not have been much but it was still something!" Chester said with a vigorous anger.

"No." Master Barnum said, catching Chesters attention.

"What?" Chester said as he looked at Master Barnum making a goofy face.

"We weren't going to kick you out of the guild to replace you with Bernard." Master Barnum explained. "You have the job and you obviously cared enough about it since you were just an opening act for us and worked your way up. We weren't going to make you give it up just because we found my son." He continued.

As he talked, Chesters angry expression turned into one of surprise, as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He felt slightly refreshed yet confused and exhausted from the days happenings.

"Then... All I did today was..." Chester said in realization.

"Make yourself look like an ass? Yes." Master Barnum said jokingly as he walked over to the side away from the group of guild members. "Ah, Ms. Hagen, can you do me a favor?" He said, catching Camillas attention.

"What is it, Master?" Camilla said.

"You can dispel the boxes around Mr. Woodstock and his friends. They won't be attacking anyone anymore." Master Barnum said with a smile as he looked towards the table where Bernard and the Celestial Spirits were as Bernard started standing up and pressing on his Lacrima pacemaker multiple times as the crow and fox looked with surprise at what he was doing. _"Right on schedule."_ Master Barnum thought as he turned his attention back towards the crowd.

Camilla looked at the guild master with slight hesitation and then glared at Team Woodstock for a second before taking a deep breath and waved her hand up. As she waved her hand, the barriers keeping Chester, Gigantia and Silencio encased was gone and they were freed from captivity.

"You sure that's a good idea Barnum?" Harriet spoke up from the crowd as everyone looked at the guild master.

"Indeed. Because it's time." Master Barnum said with a chuckle to the guild members confusion.

"Time for what?" Anatoli said with confusion until he noticed something was wrong. Looking down, Anatoli noticed a shadow was starting to cast over him and the rest of the guild members as they all noticed a large figure was standing over them.

"What the- Ahhhh!" Marlene said until she looked up and screamed at a terrifying sight in front of her and the rest of the Psycho Circus guild.

Dripping its viscous fluids over the members was a giant monster made of liquid and spikes that was staring at the guild members with its eyes glowing a bright green. To some, it was their first time seeing such a creature but for others, it was familiar from a recent copy of Sorcerer Weekly as the great big Etherious Demon slime, Formosa, had appeared.

"Holy moly! What is that thing!?" Anatoli screamed as the giant slime demon looked down at the guild.

_"That's one of Bernards monsters... Wait, Bernard?" _Camilla thought until she looked past the crowd and saw Bernard walk slowly with his arms drooping down and his back arched.

"You... Assholes..." Bernard said as he approached the crowd with a tone of rage in his voice.

"Bernard?" Pietro said, unsure of what he was seeing.

"It's a simple job..." Bernard said with the guild members becoming confused and scared as they looked up at the giant fluid golem staring at them. "How hard is it..." He continued in his tone of rage.

"Wha-what do you mean?" Nole, one of the conjoined twins said.

"What's "hard?"' Andy, the other conjoined twin said.

"...How hard is it advertise a damn shoooooooowwwwwww!?" Bernard said as he raised his voice to the point where his shouting caused air to blow through the air and caused the members of Psycho Circus to look in shock and surprise at how he was acting.

"Bernard?! What are you doing?! You aren't in any condition to-" Camilla said until she was cut off by the sight of Bernard lifting up the piece of paper he picked up from the table and shoving it near her face.

"...None of you... Advertised the show!?" Bernard shouted at the group, cutting off Camilla who looked at the flier in surprise.

_"Wait... Oh crap! All of this stuff with finding Bernard these past number of weeks made us all forget to advertise the show!" _Camilla thought as she looked at the flier as she turned towards Bernard whose veins started to pop on his head from the rage he was building.

"Aren't those the fliers we were to be advertising?" Anatoli said as he grabbed the flier out of the angry Bernards hand. "Yeah uhhhh, sorry about that? Guess we all forgot to- Gfahgh!" He continued until he felt the feeling of someone punching him straight in the face and knocking him off of his googly-eyed ball.

"Anatoli!" Marlene said as she and Pietro moved to where he was and lifted him slightly up to a seated position as he rubbed his now swollen cheek.

"Ow! What the heck was that- Guh?!" Anatoli said with annoyance until he noticed the look of pure rage coming off of Bernards face with his eyes a blank white of terrifying hostility.

"I leave... And you morons couldn't handle a damn thing without me!? I am not taking the blame for this! I. Am. Noooooot!" Bernard shouted at everyone as they looked and saw the anger he had almost take the shape of an aura over his body. As the raw rage energy was coming off of him, Formosa approached as it absorbed the energy he was giving off.

_"It sucks energy from Bernards heart stone... Interesting."_ Master Barnum thought as he sat on a table and watched Bernards angry tirade in front of the rest of the guild members.

"Look, if you can just calm down for a minute and-" Camilla was trying to speak up until Bernard cut her off as he looked at her with a look of insanity in his face.

"Form a line..." Bernard said as Camilla looked at him with confusion.

"What?" Camilla replied back.

"Form! A! Liiiiinnnnneeeee!" Bernard shouted at her as she looked at him with wide eyes as he barked an order at her as she stood still with her eyes wide from him shouting at her, her hair blowing from the air that was given off merely by the force of his voice.

"...Everyone! Form a line!" Camilla said as she turned around and faced everyone. _"Holy crap... He's acting like he used to act."_ She thought as she felt slightly nostalgic from seeing Bernard acting angrily and insane.

"Whoa... Haven't seen him make an expression like that in a long time." Anatoli said in confusion as Camilla started to get everyone in a line.

"Yeah, me neither." Harriet said as she got in the line. Looking upward, Formosa got closer and loomed over the guild members with a terrifying look in its shining eyes. "Eep!" The older woman squealed as her beard hair started to straighten in fear as the other guild members looked up at Bernards pet monster.

"Be quiet!" Bernard screamed. "No one talk until I am done!" He shouted before turning back to Camilla who looked at him with a surprised look, unsure of what else he wanted. "Get them in the line too!" Bernard shouted as he pointed at Chester, Gigantia and Silencio.

"Us?!" Gigantia replied in surprise.

"Them?!" Camilla said in similar surprise. "They can't be a part of the show, they tried to kill you!" She said with a look of concern before Bernard got face to face with the S-class wizard.

"...Did I stutter?" Bernard said with a twitch in his eye as Camilla looked at him and noticing how serious he was.

"...You three. Get into the line up..." Camilla said as she turned away from Bernard and told Team Woodstock to get on the line.

"Y-yes sir! I mean, ma'am! I mean- Wha-whatever!" Gigantia stuttered, fearful of Bernards angry looks he was giving at everyone and how his shouting was making Camilla work in his favor. "Move it, you two!" Gigantia exclaimed as she motioned for Chester and Silencio to join her and the rest of Psycho Circus.

"What the- I am not listening to a damn thing this jerk says! Are you out of your mind?!" Chester exclaimed in protest until he noticed Bernard had approached him and pulled him by his shirt in a threatening manner.

"...Do you care about this guilds show or not?!" Bernard screamed in Chesters face.

"Wha-what?" Chester said confused as he looked in Bernards angry eyes.

"If you care about this guild! Get! On! The! Line!" Bernard said with enough force that it caused the other members of Psycho Circus to feel chills up their spines that made them nervous to cross him.

"O-O-okay?" Chester said as a nervous sweat started to drip off his face as Bernard let him go and he walked over to the line where everyone stood.

Moving in front of everyone, Bernard proceeded to face away from the group as he started to scratch his head profusely. His eyes closed, his teeth grinding, bits of hairs shedding off as he scratched his head as he started to think of what to do.

_"Okay! Okay! Think, think, think! What can we do to draw a crowd, a big one!? I am not letting everything that happened this week prevent Psycho Circus from getting a payday! I can't take this crap anymore!"_ Bernard thought with anger and spirals in his eyes as he felt like he was going to go insane from the inability of his former guild handling the situation, leaving it up to him to fix it.

"Uhhh hey, before you have an aneurysm. I think we both should go inside you while you handle things." Corvus said, speaking up as he and Vulp caught the crazy eyes of Bernard. "So uhhh, we are just going to go and- Blagh!" The crow said until Bernard grabbed him by the neck and grabbed Vulp by his backside.

"You two aren't going anywhere!" Bernard said to the Celestial Spirits who had looks of confusion and fear in their eyes. "You both are involved now! And are helping!" Bernard exclaimed as he put Vulp and Corvus on the line.

_"He looks like he is on the verge of a heart attack."_ Corvus thought as he looked at Bernard who walked over to Anatoli.

"Your act! What is it!?" Bernard asked crazily.

"A-A-Acrobatics!" Anatoli said with a cold sweat dripping off his face.

"Specifics!" Bernard requested.

"I use my Wind Magic to make me stand on my ball over a tight rope above the guild!" Anatoli said with his body straight, like a cadet being screamed at by a drill sergeant.

"You can stay on the ball even upside down!?" Bernard questioned.

"Yes, I can be under a ball and float." Anatoli said confused.

"You are going to tight rope... while spiraling the rope!" Bernard screamed at Anatoli.

"S-spiraling?" Anatoli replied, unsure of what he meant.

"Use your magic and twist around the rope on the ball over the guild!" Bernard shouted.

_"Twist around the rope while I go across? Oh... Wait, that actually sounds like a good idea." _Anatoli thought as he realized what Bernard was thinking.

"You!" Bernard said as he looked at Marlene.

"Yes!?" Marlene said as her body shivered as Bernard looked at her with an angry look.

"Your dance routine? Have you ever done one with another person!?" Bernard asked.

"No? Not really." Marlene replied honestly as Bernard twisted his head towards Gigantias direction, sweat dripping down her face as she locked eyes with the crazed beanie-sporting young man.

"You!" Bernard said as he looked up at the incredibly tall woman. "You don't have an act, do you?!"

"N-no!" Gigantia replied honestly with a fearful tone.

"Can you dance?!" Bernard asked of the tall woman.

'"Dance?"' Gigantia replied with confusion. "Well, I could try it."

"Marlene! You have a duet partner!" Bernard screamed towards Marlene.

"But-but, we don't have a routine!" Marlene replied with surprise at Bernard decision to pair Gigantia and Marlene for a dance routine.

"I have an idea for one! I'll walk you through the steps later!" Bernard exclaimed as he walked away towards Pietro.

"How much can you lift?!" Bernard asked.

"4,450 pounds!" Pietro said with a straight face.

"Practice with 5,000 pounds! You are lifting an audience!" Bernard stated loudly.

"Wait, what?!" Pietro said with surprise of what Bernard asked of him.

"A full audience on our bleachers weighs a total of over five tons! That's close to what you can lift currently and what you are going to lift in three days!" Bernard screamed as Pietro nodded in compliance.

As Bernard proceeded to go down the line of guild members and listing off what they will be doing for the show, Camilla quietly walked over to Master Barnum who was sitting on a guild table.

"What is going on here?" Camilla whispered.

"What do you mean? Can't you tell?" Master Barnum replied with a smirk as Camilla looked at him with a confused look.

"Did you have something to do with this?" Camilla questioned.

"Nothing at all. Bernard just happened to notice that we haven't advertised the show in the past few weeks so he is just acting how he would act if he knew that no one practiced or was prepared." Master Barnum said with confidence as he looked at Bernard, who turned his attention towards him and started to stomp angrily towards his father. "Yeeesss?" The guild master said jokingly.

"You... Use your magic to make an extra room for everyone to practice their acts, you old fart!" Bernard barked a demand at his father.

"Oh sure, I'll do that. But there is a slight problem that needs addressing first." Master Barnum said with a smile towards his agitated son whose veins were starting to pop on his head.

"What?!" Bernard questioned loudly.

"You see, with Chester acting the way he did, I don't think it's a good idea he perform as the ringmaster for the show. Only seems fair a suitable replacement take over for him for the night since he is now going to have to use his puppets for an act in the show." Master Barnum said with a smug look at his son.

'"A replacement?"' Camilla said with confusion.

"That only seems fair. I mean, I could do it but I am too much of an "old fart" now." Master Barnum said smugly as he looked at Bernard, his eyes twitching with every word his father spoke.

"Fine! I don't give a burning crap!" Bernard shouted, taking up the job as he rushed towards the table where the fliers were and picked them up and rushed over to Corvus and Vulp.

"You can fly and you are a shapeshifting fox, you immediately draw attention!" Bernard said as he grabbed handfuls of the papers and gave them to the Celestial Spirits. "Corvus, fly over Hemlock and drop fliers everywhere. Vulp, you hand these out to as many people as you can. I'm going to take the rest somewhere else." He continued as Vulp nodded in compliance as Corvus started to fly.

"Alright, but I am only doing this so you don't give yourself a heart attack." Corvus said as he and Vulp left the guild to start handing out fliers.

"Alright! All of you! Move it! We only have about three days to get this thing underway or no one is getting a decent payday! And if you don't listen, I am shoving Formosa so deep up your butts that you will be tasting whatever the thing is made of on your tongues! You got that!?" Bernard screamed as the Psycho Circus members rushed in the direction of the back of the guild as Master Barnum walked away towards where they were all going.

"Well... Today is an odd one..." Camilla said to herself as she suddenly looked down as noticed something grabbed her hand.

Looking down, Camilla noticed Bernard had grabbed her by the hand and started to pull her towards the exit.

"Whoa! Hey!" Camilla said in surprise as she was getting pulled. "What do you think you're doing?!" Camilla said in protest as Bernard took her to the tent house next to the guildhall. Looking to the side of the house, Bernard walked over.

Next to the home was a large object covered by a tarp that had a set of four wheels. Removing the tarp, Bernard had threw away the covers to reveal a large vehicle. It sported a set of four wheels that looked like it was designed for multiple terrains and a set of handlebars with a long seat. Hanging off it was a Self-Energy plug, or an "S.E. plug" for short.

"I knew it! I knew this was a Magi-Cycle!" Bernard exclaimed as he turned towards Camilla.

"Yeah, it's mine. I got it as a gift for myself... It's all-terrain and- whoa!" Camilla said until she was cut off by the feeling of Bernard pulling her towards the bike and then setting her on it and placing the SE plug on her wrist.

"Okay! Drive!" Bernard shouted as he got seated on the bike behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, her face becoming red in the process as she looked down on the bike and noticed he was holding her.

"Umm?! Bern-Bernard? Maybe you should get a shirt first?!" Camilla said embarrassed as she put her hands on the handlebars.

"We have no time! We got fliers to hand out! Now drive us to the nearest towns so we can advertise! I'll get a shirt there!" Bernard said loudly as Camilla started to rev up the Magi-Cycle.

"S-sure..." Camilla said with some hesitation as her magic started to power the Magi-Cycle, through the SE plug, as the four wheel bike started to move as the duo of Camilla and Bernard drove through the town of Hemlock. Looking down at her waist, Camilla saw how tightly Bernard was clinging to her back with his arms around her waist, blushing as she watched the roads.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Three Days Later, Hemlock, 6:55 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"There you go, enjoy the show!" Camilla said with a smile as she gave the last tickets to a small family as they entered into the Psycho Circus guildhall.

Following Bernards tirade, the guild members kicked it into twelfth gear to learn new routines and prepare for the show. With Bernards assistance and planning, the guild members rushed to practice with only three days worth of time but had managed to be prepared and were ready to perform like their lives depended on it as everyone was scrambling in the back behind the bleachers where the audience was sitting down.

As Camilla walked through the back curtain, everyone turned their heads towards her.

"I sold the last ticket." Camilla said with a smile to the Psycho Circus members whose eyes widened in surprise.

"Well I'll be damned..." Pietro said with surprise, dressed in a black leotard with his wrestling belt around his waist.

"That's the first time in almost two years!" Marlene said with a smile on her face, wearing an exotic turquoise dress.

"Aww yeah! We are all eating good tomorrow night folks!" Anatoli exclaimed happily as the members of Psycho Circus started to cheer at their potential success.

"Hey!" Bernard shouted, catching everyone's attention as he wore a red petticoat with white pants, black boots and a loose bowtie. "We aren't out of the woods yet! Everyone get ready!" He shouted as he struggled to fix his bowtie.

'"Aye, aye, captain!" The guildmembers said in unison to Bernard whose eye twitched in response to them referring to him as "captain."

_"God damn it! I am not the captain or the boss or master or whatever! And I really hate this stupid tie!" _Bernard screamed internally as he looked in a nearby mirror and continually failed to readjust his tie properly. Before he could continue to struggle, he felt a set of female hands grab his bowtie and fixed it.

"There you go." Camilla said as she fixed Bernards bowtie as he continued to look in the mirror with a disgruntled look.

"...Can't believe I am wearing this thing again..." Bernard said annoyed.

"It's you in your natural habitat." Camilla said earnestly as Bernard sighed in response.

Following his deep breath, Bernard removed his beanie and proceeded to replace it with a black top hat that sported the clown-like logo of the Psycho Circus guild. Fixing it and then grabbing a cane that was on the ground, Bernard turned towards the exit to head out to the stage.

"Okay, so... Remember your positions? And what we all practiced?" Bernard said, getting a final rollcall.

'"You got it!"' The Psycho Circus guild members said in unison with Gigantia and Silencio even joining in.

As Bernard was about to exit, he swallowed spit in nervousness, the pressure making him feel slightly disturbed at the possibility of things not going well. Suddenly, he felt a hand appear on his shoulder as he looked up and saw Pietro with a confident look in his eyes.

"There's no doubts. Go out there and break a leg, Bernie." Pietro said with a smile to reassure Bernard.

"It's Bernard, you bald coot." Bernard said as he removed Pietros hand from his shoulder and headed out to the stage.

The lights went out in the Psycho Circus guildhall that was converted magically into a stage area with a large assortment of bleachers surrounding the center area. A lone spotlight came on as Bernard stood in the center with him pulling his hat down over his eyes as he begun to speak.

"Ladies, gentleman, children of the magic world! I have a question for all of you tonight; to you, what is "magic?" Bernard said dramatically as the audience was unsure of what he meant. "Is it powers that draws you to the mystery of the magical arts?!" Bernard screamed as light particles started to move out of his right hand as they took shape and formed into Corvus.

As Corvus flew through the air, the audience was in awe as his body started to spin and was coated in his colorful lightning, impressive the audience visually.

"Or perhaps it's desire to see rarities that you aren't familiar with?!" Bernard shouted as light particles started to come out of his left side as they formed into Vulp as the fox Celestial Spirits magical fur had caused his body to form spikes, scaring some members of the audience who weren't expecting him to do that.

"Or maybe..." Bernard said as he reached into his shirt and started to press on his Lacrima pacemaker as the multicolored fluid of Formosa started to drip out of him as the slimy golem formed beneath his feet and raised him high into the air as he stood on the head of Formosa. "Maybe you just want to see something bizarre..." He continued as he looked at the crowd who were shock over the sight of the giant monster.

"Well then you came to the right place..." Bernard said as he removed his hat. "I welcome you to the greatest show... Not just in Fiore, but in all of Earthland! I welcome you to the Psycho Circus' "Ultimate Carnival!" Bernard shouted as the audiences erupted into cheers of excitement.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tent House, 12:49 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Blaaaahhhh!" Bernard exclaimed in annoyance, now dressed in a black t-shirt and brown baggy pants and his usual beanie, as he walked into the unlit tent house as he knelt down on the old mattress that was meant for Corvus and Vulp to sleep on. Laying face first, he let his body go limp so he can relax himself after a long and stressful past few days. As he laid on the mat, light particles started to come out of his body as Corvus and Vulp appeared.

"Holy starlight! that was fun!" Corvus exclaimed loudly with a joyous vigor as Vulp made a similar happy expression.

"...Nice to know someone enjoyed themselves..." Bernard said with his face in the mat.

"The monkey dude managed to stay on his ball upside down! Baldy with the moustache lifting that audience! The weird conjoined twins eating a unicycle and then riding it while the wheel was sticking out of the other guys mouth! The tall girl and lizard woman's crazy flexible exotic dance routine! That was awesome!" Corvus said as he started listing off aspects from the show that ended only a half hour ago.

"I know... I was there... I came up with the routines..." Bernard said tiredly.

"Oh uh, right. Oh but that was so cool how we showed off during the opening! I always knew I was meant for wowing a crowd but that took the cake!" Corvus said in his happy state as he flew around the room, semi-hyper from the show as Vulp nudged against the downed Bernard to see if he was alright.

"...Good, now can I sleep now?" Bernard said exhaustedly.

"Seriously?!" Corvus said as he stopped zooming around. "The other members of your guild are going out for a late night afterparty! We should celebrate!"

"I am celebrating... I am trying to sleep. So please, shut up!" Bernard said as he sat up to get Corvus to stop bugging him.

As the trio talked, they noticed someone had entered the tent house as they looked over and noticed Camilla, with a plain look on her face, appeared.

"Actually... Yeah, you should rest up. Laters!" Corvus said with a smirk as he and Vulp turned back into light particles and re-entered Bernards pacemaker, leaving him with Camilla.

"Hey!" Bernard said in annoyance before turning his attention to Camilla, who proceeded to walk over to the closet. "So uhhhh… I know I am still technically a "prisoner" in the guild so I shouldn't be allowed to sleep on a floor mat after being in chains for so long... But I am hoping for some leniency here, please?" Bernard said as he scratched the back of his head as he talked to Camilla who appeared to be ignoring him.

"I mean I know I don't deserve it after all I did but I worked these past three days with no sleep and I just performed so I would like some peace and- Oh." Bernard continued to try and bargain with Camilla for some decent sleep but he was cut of by something taking him by surprise.

Camilla, standing slightly over him, proceeded to put a blanket and a pillow on his lap. Looking up at her, Bernard saw something he hadn't seen from her in quite some time since he had returned to the guild; a smile that appeared welcoming and happy.

"You can use those." Camilla said with a smile to Bernard, a look of surprise forming on his face as he looked down at the sheets and pillow as he proceeded to put them on the mat for use.

"Th-thanks." Bernard said, unsure of the reason for the act of kindness.

"Talked with some of the others, they're kinda bummed you weren't joining them for the afterparty." Camilla said as she walked towards the changing curtain to get changed.

"I'd rather get some shuteye... First time in two years pulling a crazy amount of work like that." Bernard said as he laid his head against the pillow and draped the blanket over his lower body.

"I know and I am happy with what I saw out there." Camilla said as she changed her clothes, putting on a brown tank top and a pair of black shorts that showed much of her legs.

"What? Me being a dork in a petticoat?" Bernard said as he looked at the ceiling.

"...Coolest "dork in a petticoat" I've ever seen." Camilla said as she came out from behind the curtain and walked over to her bed. "I'm just happy to see the "old" Bernard. The same crazily insane guy who gets so worked up about making sure his friends and guildmates had what they need to be alright." Camilla said as she sat on her bed and locked eyes with Bernard who was looking at her from his pillow, a slight blush forming on his face.

"Thought you said I was different now?" Bernard said as he turned himself over, looking away from Camilla as he shut his eyes.

"Nope... Still the same guy... And I can't be more happier about that..." Camilla said with a content look on her face as she laid back on her bed as they both went to sleep.

* * *

**Drama? Check. Unity? Check. A very angry man in a beanie getting pissed off at his friends and comrades inability to do their jobs well enough so he takes matters into his own hands by threatening them with being probed by his giant slime demon and then saving the day by working his ass off? Triple check. With everything seemingly calming down between Chester and Bernard, the issue at hand reared its ugly head; no one advertised "The Greatest Show in Earthland" and as such, forced a certain man with a pacemaker to use his rage to everyone's benefit. But what is next? A secret is still hidden, what will happen to Bernard as he is still a prisoner to his old guild and what of Chester Woodstock? Will "bygones by bygones?" More to come! Next time on Menagerie!**


	19. Chapter 19

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tent House, 7:01 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

The morning after the Psycho Circus "Ultimate Carnival" had begun as the sun had began to rise over the town of Hemlock. Inside the tent house, Bernard was stirring under bed sheets as he wrapped his arms around a soft and shapely pillow as he hugged it.

_"This feels so good..."_ Bernard thought happily as he increased his embrace on the soft pillow he was holding. _"Man this mat is so comfy and soft, it almost doesn't feel like the same bed from last night..." _He continued to think as he rested his head on the pillow of the bed. _"And this pillow is so nice and warm..."_

As Bernard continued to enjoy what he had his arms around, he pressed his body further against it and moved his hands up the pillow and noticed a peculiarly soft and shapely mound on the palm of his right hand. As he moved his hand on the round shape, he felt a pointy end to it as the thumb of his hand brushed past the pointy bit.

"Ahn…" The sound of a moan was heard throughout the tent home as Bernard, with his eyes still closed, noticed the strange noise.

_"...The heck was that? Huh?" _Bernard thought as he felt something brush past his nose. Taking a sniff, Bernard smelled a delightful fragrance enter his nostrils. It smelled like sweet flowers and as he inhaled, he felt strands of what felt like hair brushing against his nose.

Opening his eyes slowly as he stirred, Bernard noticed that the bed he was on wasn't the one he originally slept on the previous night. Looking around slowly, he noticed the bed he was on was a larger and nicer quality bed than the musty old mat he was on. As he looked forward, Bernards eyes widened as he noticed a shocking sight before him.

The bed he was laying on was Camillas bed and the pillow he wrapped his arms around wasn't a pillow, it was the waistline of Camilla, facing away from Bernard as he was spooning her and holding her tightly. With his head over her right shoulder as she was asleep, Bernard looked down and noticed his right hand was on her left side breast and his left hand was around her waist and holding one of her hands that was laying on the bed.

"Wha-hmp!?" Bernard stuttered before quickly shutting his mouth to avoid waking her up. Looking around her beautiful form and her pretty face, Bernard blushed as he looked at her asleep. _"Wha-wha-what?! What the hell is going?! What the hell am I doing here?!" _He thought nervously as sweat begun to drip from his brow.

Twisting his head back, Bernard looked and saw the his bed mat on the floor next to Camilla. _"I was over there... How did I get here?! Did I sleepwalk or something!?" _Bernard thought as he looked forward and noticed he was still holding Camilla. _"Erh!? Crap! If she wakes up and sees I'm fondling her, she's going to have my head!" _

Attempting to move his hands, Bernard tried to free himself from his embrace on Camillas body. Letting go of her breast, Bernard tried to loosen his other hands intertwined state with Camillas hand.

_"Crap! She is holding my hand! I'm freaking stuck!" _Bernard thought with sweat dripping down his face as he tried to loosen his hand from her tight grip.

Pulling his hand out her grasp, his freedom was short lived as Bernard noticed Camilla turned around from the direction she was facing and draped her arms around Bernards shoulders, still asleep with her eyes closed as her face was now close to Bernards. Additionally, she proceeded to intertwine her legs with one of Bernards as he felt one of her feet begin to soothingly rub her toes along the top of Bernards foot. Ironically, the foot he had his guild logo on.

_"Whaha!? Oh god, why did she have to turn around?! Damn it, that's ticklish!" _Bernard thought as he panicked and mentally laughing from the feeling of Camillas foot tickling him. _"She must think I am a pillow like I did with her... Oh no, if she wakes up and sees me like this, she's going to think I snuck in here to do something perverted!" _Bernard thought with his hands in the air as he didn't know where to put his hands as he looked at the sleeping beauty clinging to him.

_"This can't get any worse..."_ Bernard thought nervously as he felt Camillas chest begin to press against him and rested her head against his upper body and shoulder area. As she got closer, light particles begun to come out of Bernards chest area as he noticed Corvus and Vulp were beginning to form. _"Oh no..."_ He thought as he looked back and noticed Corvus and Vulp appeared off the side of the bed.

"Ahh! Morning kid, how are... you?" Corvus said until he and Vulp turned around and noticed Bernards weird position as they looked at Camilla spooning him. "...Vulp, I think we need to leave." Corvus said as he motioned to Vulp.

"Wait! Help me here!" Bernard whispered loudly, asking for assistance.

"From what? You seem in a good place right now." Corvus said as if he was holding back a laugh.

"Grrr! Just help pull me out of her!" Bernard begged.

"Pffff! Bahahaha!" Corvus burst into tears, laughing loudly. "Perfect choice of words!" The crow said in his laughter as Vulp looked at his Celestial Spirit friend with a raised eyebrow.

"Stop laughing, you stupid chicken hawk!" Bernard exclaimed loudly.

"Who you calling a "chicken hawk," you lucky bastard?!" Corvus said as he stopped laughing. "You know I would totally change places with you if I could!"

"I'm highly doubtful she is into birds!" Bernard exclaimed loudly until he noticed Camillas body started to squirm and stir. Looking forward, Bernard saw Camilla start to open her eyes slowly.

As she took her arms away from Bernard, She formed two fists and started to rub her eyes gently. Looking forward, she saw the nervous and sweat soaked face of Bernard as the two locked eyes. Camillas eyes slowly grew wider until she suddenly cocked back her arms and pushed Bernard with her hands out her bed.

"Hah!" Bernard exclaimed as he was pushed out of Camillas bed and knocking over Corvus and Vulp.

"Bagha!" Corvus exclaimed in pain as Bernard landed on top of him and Vulp.

"What the heck are you doing!?" Camilla shouted loudly as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits looked up at her from her bed while they were on the floor.

"Um! Well... I can sorta explain!? Not really but- Uh!" Bernard stammered as he couldn't explain why he was in bed with Camilla. He wasn't even sure how he even got there in the first place.

"You were sweating all over my bed!" Camilla said as she looked at some of the wet areas around the upper part of the bed where Bernard was laying his head.

"He was also trying to give you mouth to mouth." Corvus said from behind Bernard.

"Huh?!" Bernard exclaimed as he turned around and looked at Corvus, who was smirking as he looked at Bernard.

"Excuse me?" Camilla said as she didn't completely hear what the crow said.

"Uhh?! Forget it! I am going to the bathroom! Sorry!" Bernard said as he grabbed Vulp and Corvus and carried them out of the tent house, leaving Camilla on her bed watching them leave.

_"Well... That could have looked less awkward for him..."_ Camilla thought as she got out of bed.

Rushing towards the big top, Bernard, while holding the Celestial Spirits in his arms, had sprinted into the guildhall of Psycho Circus. Headed for the back hallways, he quickly kicked the door open and shut it behind him as he let down Corvus and Vulp on the floor.

"Well... This is a bathroom..." Corvus said as he looked at the bathroom.

Clear blue tile walls and floor comprised the Psycho Circus bathroom as well as several mirrors and sinks under them on the walls alongside several stalls and urinals.

"Why are we here?" Corvus asked of Bernard who proceeded to go to one of the sinks and started washing his face.

"I don't know, I panicked and- pflfff!" Bernard said until he felt a strange sensation on his lips, causing him to stick his tongue out and blow spit into the sink. _"Damn it! Not again!" _Bernard thought with minor annoyance.

"Something wrong?" Corvus asked as he flew up to one of the sinks and looked at Bernard as Vulp opened one of the stalls with his tail, transformed into a hairy hand to open the door.

"I have that weird strawberry taste in my mouth again. Its been showing up on my lips and tongue for the past few days since we came back here." Bernard said as he wiped his mouth with water from the sink.

_'"Strawberry flavor in the mouth" huh?"_ Corvus thought with a raised eyebrow as he watched Bernard rinse his mouth.

"Okay, that outta do it." Bernard said as he wiped the taste out of his mouth. Turning around, Bernard noticed where Vulp was standing; next to a toilet in one of the stalls. As Bernard looked at the stall, he couldn't help but stare at it.

"Whatcha looking at?" Corvus said as he looked at the toilet that Vulp was standing next to.

"Memories..." Bernard said as he looked at the stall.

"Of taking dumps? Hehe." Corvus joked as Bernard closed his eyes in annoyance.

"No! It's-" Bernard shouted at the crow until he cut himself off, biting his lip to keep himself from talking. "It's... About time if you ask me..." Bernard said with a relenting tone.

"Huh?" Corvus exclaimed with confusion.

After Corvus expressed his confusion, Bernard reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small black book. Opening it up, Bernard flipped through the pages as he looked at the contents.

"What's that?" Corvus questioned.

"A picture book... Or, to be more specific, a photo album." Bernard said as he proceeded to sit down on the tiled floor as Vulp and Corvus came over and looked at the book as Bernard placed it on the floor.

"You were carrying that around while we were traveling?" Corvus asked of Bernard as he shook his head left and right, signifying a negative response.

"I found this in the closet of Camillas place while were working on the show. I think this will shed some light on some things." Bernard said as he opened the back to the first page and showed it to Corvus and Vulp.

"Oh hey, would you look at that?" Corvus said, catching Bernard and Vulp's attention. "We are in a bathroom and you are showing us old photos. It's kinda like that promise you gave us that the next time you had to go the bathroom, you would tell us everything, right?" Corvus said earnestly.

"It's not "like" that promise. I am following through on that promise. I'm going to tell you guys everything you want to know. I owe you that much." Bernard said with a serious face as he looked at Vulp and Corvus, who were surprised by his seriousness.

Looking down at the photo gallery, Bernard showed the Celestial Spirits a series of photos of a small ashen haired boy wearing a beanie as he played around on a playground.

"I'm pretty sure I can guess who this is." Corvus said with a smirk as he picked up the photo from the album with one of his wings.

"Yup. That's me at the local playground back when I was seven years old." Bernard said as he looked at the photo.

As Vulp pushed the page over, the next photo confused the Celestial Spirits as they looked at a photo of a young Bernard, covered in bruises as he stood over two other kids while holding rocks in his hands. Behind Bernard in the photo was a young chimp-like boy standing barefoot on a ball with a turquoise haired girl with snake teeth and swirl eyes and a young brown haired girl.

"The heck?" Corvus said aloud as he looked at Bernard, whose face was red with embarrassment.

"That... is me. After a fight... And the other kids are Anatoli, Marlene and Camilla." Bernard said embarrassed.

"Context, please?" Corvus said as he held up the photo with intrigue.

"I was an angry little boy when I was younger... I had a habit of getting into fights with other kids who would make fun of Marlene and Anatoli for their appearances or tried to pick on Camilla when we were all young. I had a very annoying nickname on top of that..." Bernard said as he rubbed his temples. "They used to call me "Burning Bernie."'

"Pffff! "Burning Bernie?!" Bahahahaha! That's rich!" Corvus said as he rolled around on the floor in uproarious laughter as Bernard looked at him rolling around on the floor in annoyance. As the crow laughed, Vulp looked at the next photo with curiosity. _"Wait... So him acting outrageously angry the past few days was him being "normal?"' _Corvus thought for a split second as he continued to laugh.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up- Oh? What's up Vulp?" Bernard said to Vulp as he looked at the fox.

The photo was of a young Bernard, Camilla, Anatoli and Marlene in swimwear with a slightly younger Pietro sitting in a chair as he watched over the kids as they played in Nereid Lake, the water current that runs through the town of Hemlock.

"Oh yeah, when we were all younger, we used to play in the lake a lot." Bernard said with a slight smile as he looked at the old photo as Corvus waddled over after he finished laughing. "You done acting like a moron?"

"Somewhat. Hehehe." Corvus said as he tried to hold back a chuckle. "So what's this photo?" He said as he looked down at the picture. "Well isn't this a nice little pic- Huh?"

"What?" Bernard said confused.

"Something's missing here." Corvus said as he pointed at the young Bernard in the photo, wearing only swim trunks. Pointing his wing at the chest of the child version of him, Corvus spotted the lack of a certain magical stone lodged where Bernards heart is.

"...Yeah... That." Bernard said with half closed eyes as he looked at the photo.

"Where's your ticker rock?" Corvus questioned as Vulp looked at Bernard with interest in his answer.

"I never really told you about that... I wasn't born with this problem I have with my heart, it came about because of an... Accident." Bernard said as he sat back from his seated position and leaned against the wall of the bathroom, next to the sink.

"What kind of "accident?"' Corvus questioned. "What? Did you feel up Camilla before you ran away from home and she punched your heart out? Hehehe." Corvus joked as Bernard looked at him with an annoyed look.

"Come on man, I am trying to be serious here showing you these." Bernard said with a serious expression once again.

"Oh... Uhhhh sorry." Corvus said apologetically.

"I don't feel 100% on board with talking about it either..." Bernard said as he looked at the photo of Bernard without the Lacrima pacemaker with Vulp.

"If you don't want to talk about, you don't have to..." Corvus said as he looked at the somber expression form on Bernards face.

"No... No, I owe you guys an explanation for some of this crap that's been going here at the guild with me and it all starts back to the day I got this thing." Bernard said as he pointed at his heart.

"If you want to..." Corvus said as he and Vulp looked at Bernard sighing as he started to speak.

"I was eleven when it happened. It was just a normal day like any other day. Me and the other kids were going around Hemlock placing fliers everywhere for the townsfolk to know we were advertising the next show. Forgot to mention; I have been involved with the guild business since I was about eight." Bernard explained. "My father was still in charge even back then and want me to pitch in so me and the other kids; Camilla, Anatoli and Marlene, started placing ads everywhere in town."

"Okay? Go on..." Corvus said with concern as he and Vulp looked at Bernard.

"I got in trouble with Camilla earlier in the day for attempting to put some of the ads on top of a streetlight. Anatoli didn't know magic back then so he couldn't float up to it so I just climbed up it and she said it was a bad idea." Bernard explained. "After that, I decided to run across the street and place some of the ads over on a building but..."

"...But?" Corvus said with concern.

"...There is a reason parents tell their kids to "look both ways" when crossing the street..." Bernard said disgruntled as he took off his beanie and started to scratch at his hair as the Celestial Spirits' eyes widened as he put it back on his head.

"What...?" Corvus said as he looked at Bernard.

"A horse drawn buggy was riding by at full speed, the driver was just some farmer who was late to go to one of the shops in town to sell his vegetables and rushed himself without any care for stopping. I was on the road when he came by and I was hit by the horses in the front... I was knocked down onto my back and one of the horses hooves managed to press right onto my heart." Bernard said as he looked at his Lacrima pacemaker.

After saying that, Corvus and Vulp fell silent, wanting to hear more as well as becoming more and more concerned with Bernards wellbeing as he told his story.

"I was unconscious for a good while and was taken to a medicine man in town. While I was out, I heard this second hand from Pietro, Harriet and my father, the medical wizard said that the muscles around my heart was starting to press against my heart randomly as I breathed, some times my heart would beat slowly, other times it would beat too fast, but I would feel pain from it. I would survive but I would suffer for the rest of my life with issues with my heart..." Bernard said sullenly as he looked down at the photo book and flipped through it some. "... If my father didn't make a tough decision..."

"The Lacrima?" Corvus questioned.

"Yup..." Bernard replied. "The doctor went on a trip off continent sometime before the war happened between the country and Alvarez and found a place that was full of experimental Lacrima stones that had tons of excess power that never ran out. Took one home with him and he came up with this bright idea to insert it into me to make it so I could live a normal life... At the cost of three million Jewels..."

"What?! That much money for a magic stone?!" Corvus exclaimed loudly in shock as Vulp looked on in confusion.

"He claimed the price was "cheaper" than what the value of the stone was. My father asked around the guild for people to donate, asked the members and even made a charity event out of the usual tri-weekly show. He was fifty thousand Jewels short but the doctor took pity on him and put the thing in me. I was able to breathe and act normally again... For awhile." Bernard said as he begun to stand up from the floor.

"What do you mean "for while?"' Corvus questioned as he flew up off the ground to look at Bernard at eye level.

"After I got the stupid thing, stuff started to change around the guild. I wasn't asked to put up signs again and people became very overprotective towards me." Bernard said as he looked at Corvus as Vulp brushed past Bernards legs.

"Well that makes sense, they were worried." Corvus said, trying to look at both sides of the story.

"Thinking back on it, yeah they weren't wrong for it but looking back, I wasn't too happy about it. I felt... Pointless..." Bernard said as he looked up at the ceiling.

"You were in a terrible accident and had a rock put in you to keep you alive and well... It's not like they did anything to put you on edge or forced you to be a shut-in or something like that." Corvus said as Bernard looked at him.

"After that, I started to think." Bernard said to the confusion of the Celestial Spirits. "I started to come up with ideas for what the show could do. Ideas for the acts now that everyone in my age group started to learn magic, with this rock sucking everything out of me, I couldn't learn how to do any kind of magic so I had to improvise." Bernard said as he pointed at his heart.

_'"Improvise" huh? Ironic, that's kinda like our contract with you right now..."_ Corvus thought as he listened.

"Years pass, I started writing down ideas for the guild. Ways to expand, acts for people who weren't even in the guild yet, I even went back to cleaning up the place and maintaining it. I was practically the manager and custodian for this entire place since I was teenager. When I wasn't cleaning up this place or spending hours coming up with plans, I was hanging out with Camilla, Marlene and Anatoli... When I chose to..."

"Hmmm?" Corvus mumbled in confusion.

"I had a lot of work when I was a teen. Cleaning and prepping wasn't the only thing, I was also being taught how to become a ringmaster for the show, I was performing for this place from when I was fifteen all the way until I was eighteen. I learned every nook and cranny of how to operate this place. Everyone came to me, thinking I was some great genius of the circus and left everything up to me to how to proceed with their ideas." Bernard said as he folded his arms as he reminisced.

"Wow... the other members of the guild kinda sound like jerks..." Corvus said, catching Bernards attention.

"...Excuse me?" Bernard said with furrowed brows.

"An entire guild of people and they leave all their help to a teenager to come and handle everything. I know they are your friends and family but they kinda seem like a bunch of dopes for overly relying on you." Corvus said to Bernard as he noticed Bernard glaring at him.

"Hey... Don't you talk about them like that..." Bernard said with a tone of aggression in his voice as he got closer to Corvus who was surprised by his aggressiveness.

"I didn't meant to offend..." Corvus said with a worried look. _"Guess you really shouldn't insult Psycho Circus around the kid or else..." _He thought as Bernard backed off and calmed down.

"You shouldn't blame them, it's not their fault." Bernard said as he looked at Vulp on the ground who was looking at Bernard with a concerned look. "It's all my fault anyway."

"How so?" Corvus questioned.

"I asked them to come to me. I wanted them to rely on me and make me feel like I was doing something. I juggled being the "idea man," the manager, the janitor, the ringmaster, the adverts guy. All because I felt so empty inside, I did everything I could not to think about it so I worked myself..." Bernard explained. "Even after I asked for them to look to me for help, I still felt pointless and empty..." Bernard said as he turned around and looked in the mirror of the bathroom.

"You had a job, you had people around you that cared and could have talked to. What happened?" Corvus wondered as he and Vulp looked at Bernard as he sighed at the sight of himself.

"...It's hard to look in a mirror..." Bernard said as he looked at his reflection, rubbing against his left side breast where his Lacrima was.

"Huh?" Corvus exclaimed in his confusion.

"Everyday when I woke up when I was younger after I got this thing, I would take my shirt off and stare at it. I wouldn't think about why I would stare at it, I just did... And at a certain point, I just became bothered by this thing..." Bernard said as he looked at his heart.

"Why?" Corvus said.

"Because I started to feel deep down... This rock is all I am now. People became overprotective because of this thing. Camilla learned Barrier Magic because she wanted to keep the members safe but I always got the feeling she learned it for my sake... I couldn't learn magic or join any of my friends on job requests from the board because I wasn't strong enough to do much. I basically became a rock in of itself..." Bernard said as tears started to form in his eyes.

"Kid..." Corvus said concerned as he looked at Bernards reflection.

Turning around and wiping the tears out of his eyes, Bernard walked over to the bathroom stall that Vulp had opened earlier. As he entered, he took a deep breath before sitting down on the toilet.

"And then two years ago, my feelings boiled over." Bernard said as he sat on the toilet. "I was right here on this exact toilet when I couldn't take much more."

"What happened?" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked at him.

"It was after a show, I was in here with my ringmaster uniform. Eighteen years old and I was tired and about ready to pass out from the exhaustion of the show earlier." Bernard explained. "I was freaking out from the exhaustion and the overworked feelings I had gained when I overheard two members of the guild show up while I was in this stall." He continued. "I barely remember the conversation but there was one thing that stood out; that my father was going to pick me as the next guild master."

"...Wow." Corvus exclaimed, unsure of what to say but that simple word as Bernard shook his head left and right.

"Thinking back on it, I thought it was perfect..." Bernard said as he sat on the toilet. "It seems like the perfect thing my father could think of, the ultimate "bad joke." Leave the hopes and dreams of a guild of performing wizards in the hands of the kid with a garbage heart and no magic to his name but whatever the dumb rock in his chest was sucking out of him. It sounds good on paper to let the guy who knows everything about this guild to be the man in charge but back then... and even now, I feel like it's insanity to ask me to hold that position... or like I said, "a bad joke"' Bernard said as he sat back on the toilet. "I was on the verge of a breakdown and that was when I decided..."

"To leave?" Corvus said.

"Yup... I packed up whatever I could and left that night on a train headed for any location and I planned to leave for a nice vacation to clear my head." Bernard said as he looked blankly at the Celestial Spirits.

"You planned to come back?" Corvus said confused. "But you left no note?" Corvus replied.

"Nothing... I wound up in Hargeon and was going to spend two weeks in town to calm my nerves, hoping the port town air and a change of pace would have helped." Bernard said as he got up from the toilet as he walked over to the Celestial Spirits. "Two weeks became two months... and two months... You get the point... I got a job and was living out of a closet with a window, scraping by."

"Why didn't you come back?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"The entire guild was looking towards me to take care of everything for several years of my young life. And I walked away from them all and pretended not to look back and regret the decision... How the heck was I supposed to confront anyone in this guild?" Bernard asked to the crow and fox.

"No offense kid... But that doesn't seem like the brightest decision you could have made." Corvus said as Bernard fell silent. "They treated you as one of their own and you walked away and gave no one any sort of relief that you were alright and pretended they wouldn't have missed you for two whole years..." The crow continued. "Don't take offense to this but... This doesn't paint the best overall picture of you..."

"I know..." Bernard said as he spoke up. "But to be honest, I am alright with that... I don't want forgiveness because I haven't earned forgiveness... And even if they told me it's fine, I don't think I could be alright with it." Bernard said as he picked up the photo book from the floor.

"Hey... They're your family and they were happy you were alright. You should be happy they are alright too." Corvus said reassuringly.

"Yeah... I guess... But it still doesn't change anything to me deep down, I abandoned these people and left them to struggle the entire time because I made them so used to needing me." Bernard said as put the book in his back pocket.

"Maybe this is a good opportunity you can take to get everyone to cut off giving you so much work. They all seem openminded enough now, it seems like a decent chance to take." Corvus said with reassurance once again as Vulp nodded in agreement as Bernard sighed.

"I don't know about that, especially with how much people like Camilla probably have no trust for me anymore, it's going to take me forever to get her to not look at me with so much distain..." Bernard said tiredly as he walked towards the bathroom door. "Well for now, all I want to do is get this day over with. Come on, we got to give out everyones cut from the show last night." Bernard said as he opened the door with Vulp following closely next to him.

As they walked down the hallway back to the main hall of the guild, Corvus hung back near the door to the bathroom as he turned his head and noticed a certain someone leaning against the wall next to the bathroom with her eyes closed. Corvus' eyes widened as he looked at Camilla, sporting a red tank top, blue shorts that exposed much of her legs, a grey jacket tied around her waist and open toed heeled shoes, leaning against the wall.

"Wha-what the... How long have you been there?" Corvus said with surprise.

"Long enough." Camilla said as she opened one of her eyes to look at Corvus.

"How... How much of that did you hear?" Corvus said with suspicion.

"Also enough..." Camilla said as she walked over to the crow. "Hey, Corvus?" She asked of the bird.

"Y-yeah?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"Do me a favor... Tell Bernard; "forever" passed by a while ago." Camilla said as she passed by the crow in the same direction where Bernard and Vulp went.

"Wait... What?" Corvus said, unsure of what she meant. "Hey wait! What does that mean!?"

* * *

**Secrets eventually come unearthed with time, it might seem hard at first but with enough time, they can help relieve some of the weight off the shoulders of those burdened by them. Bernard finally revealed his reasons: self loathing and a growing desire to prove himself that drove him into a state of overworking himself into a breakdown that pushed him out the guild and made decisions he would regret for years to come. But with him back after helping the guild in trying times, will all be well? We may not know... Till next time. On Menagerie...**

**(Authors note; Heeeyyyy, this episode is semi-somber and has a bit more of a bittersweet tone to it. It was kinda hard for me to write it because I wasn't entirely sure of how to go about this chapter whether to do it like this or via flashbacks but I decided this style. I hope you like this chapter everybody.)**


	20. Chapter 20

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus, 8:11 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Alright! Everyone get in the line up!" Bernard shouted throughout the guildhall as he sat in the chair area of one of the guilds wooden tables.

Standing in a row was the members of Psycho Circus as Bernard sorted through a sheet of papers with a large bag full of brown Jewel banknotes on the table. Standing behind him was Camilla, who was supporting him as she was watching him work.

"Here is your cut, Anatoli." Bernard said as he handed off a small stack of bills to Anatoli, who picked up the bills with a gleeful look on his face.

"Aww yeah! Payday baby!" Anatoli shouted happily as he stood on top of his googly-eyed ball.

"Will you shut up and move it along!" Bernard shouted at Anatoli to get him out of the line.

"Calm down, it's alright." Camilla said from behind Bernard in an attempt to get him to remain calm.

"...Fine. Next!" Bernard said as he started to calm down as Anatoli rolled away. "Here's yours, Marlene." He continued as he gave a small stack to the lizard-like woman.

"Thank you so much!" Marlene said with a smile as her forked tongue stuck out slightly. "Great work last night, by the way!" Marlene said in a complimentary fashion.

"Yeah, whatever." Bernard as he wrote off her compliment as he looked through the list.

"You did a great job last night Marlene." Camilla said to Marlene.

"Thank you." Marlene said as she turned her attention to Camilla. "Talk about nostalgic, am I right?" Marlene said jokingly to Camilla as she pointed at Bernards relatively bitter attitude.

"No kidding. Hehehe." Camilla said with a giggle.

As Marlene got out of the way, Pietro followed after her and proceeded to grab his cut. As he looked through it, he made a face of intrigue.

"It's been awhile since I have seen a decent stack like this." Pietro said with a smile underneath his handlebar moustache.

"Same could be said for everyone else." Camilla said with a smile as she glanced towards Bernard as he continued to give out money to other members of the guild.

"Quick question, Camilla." Pietro said as he talked to Camilla.

"What's up?" Camilla replied.

"That sheet of paper he has lists the members of what cuts everyone is getting... Is his name on it?" Pietro asked out of curiosity.

"Is Bernards name on the list?" Camilla said with a raised eyebrow. Turning back towards Bernard, Camilla looked over his shoulder and noticed the lack of his name on the paper. "Doesn't look like it." She said to Pietro.

"Did you decide that or did Master Barnum?" Pietro asked.

"No, me and the master didn't. I think Bernard did." Camilla said.

"Hmmmm… Interesting." Pietro said as he walked away.

"Hey." Camilla said as she walked over, catching Bernard attention as he continued to hand off stacks. "I just looked at the list. Why isn't your name on it?" She questioned.

"Because I am not a member of the guild. I haven't been a member for the past two years so I don't get a cut." Bernard said as he went back to looking over the list.

"You have the logo on your foot still, that means you are a member." Camilla said in response.

"I beg to differ, I am only here against my will." Bernard said with an annoyed look as he continued to count the money.

"Said the guy who suddenly started acting like the manager he was before." Camilla said sarcastically.

"I was getting frustrated!" Bernard said in response.

"Just save a couple of bucks for yourself, it's not that difficult. You did a good job last night." Camilla explained.

"No! Thank-... You." Bernard said until he was cut off at the sight of the next group of people in the line up.

"What are you doing here?" Camilla said with an angry look as she looked in the same direction as Bernard.

Standing in the lineup was Chester Woodstock, with a look of mixed emotions on his face as Gigantia and Silencio stood behind him with regretful looks on their faces.

"No! Nuh-uh, you shouldn't be in this line." Camilla said as she got around the table and stood in front of Team Woodstock to keep them from getting near Bernard. "This is for people who are supposed to be paid for their work. Not selfish psychopaths who do stupid stuff that cause harm to their guildmates." She said angrily.

"We-we know..." Gigantia said as she scratched the back of her head.

"Gah!" Silencio said as he took the tape off his mouth off. "I mean... Ouch... We came because he asked for all members to be on deck for the show yesterday and then be in the line... We didn't think we were gonna get anything but we entered the line anyway." Silence said while holding his face in pain.

"Then you three can just get out of the line because-" Camilla said before she was cut off.

"It's fine, Camilla." Bernard said as Camilla turned around and looked at him with a look of surprise.

'"Fine?" How?!" Camilla exclaimed loudly. "They tried to kill you and now you are going to pay them?" She said with shock in her tone.

"I understand why you are angry... But they worked during the show and performed." Bernard said as he looked at Camilla. "Those two had their first night performing too and they did fine so they at least deserve a cut. Even him."

"Yeah... But... You seriously can't be expecting them to get a cut when you aren't." Camilla said, unsure of what else to say.

"...They are members... I am not." Bernard said with a tired tone as he looked at Camilla before locking eyes with Chester.

Camilla walked out of the way to allow the three of them to walk up to the table. Bernard then reached inside the bag of money and pulled out three small stacks of cash for the three members of Team Woodstock. First, Gigantia took her cut.

"Thank you very much." Gigantia said as she took the money as she bent over the table and whispered to Bernard. "Just so you know, me and Silencio don't hate you and it was really cool of you to help us come up with acts. We really needed it." Gigantia said with an earnest smile.

"Yeah, yeah." Bernard said uncaringly as he gave a stack to Silencio as Chester walked up.

"...Hello..." Chester said.

"...Hi..." Bernard said as Camilla got behind him and looked at Chester to make sure Bernard was safe.

As Chester looked at Bernard, he opened his mouth to speak before Bernard raised his hand to cut him off.

"I am sorry." Bernard said, catching Chester, Camilla and the rest of Team Woodstocks confusion and surprise.

"...Excuse me?" Chester said with confusion.

"...Me leaving the guild and everything with everybody here putting it all on you, that's on me." Bernard said as he looked down at the table. "So I am sorry..." Bernard apologized.

"...I..." Chester said, unsure of what he was hearing as Bernard apologized. "I... Am sorry too..."

"For?" Camilla said aloud, wanting Chester to admit his fault.

"...For trying to kill you..." Chester said begrudgingly as he admitted his guilt as Camilla nodded in response with a look of unease.

"Yeah... I'm sorry for trying to do that to you at the end of our scrap..." Bernard as he scratched the back of his head. Reaching into the sack on the table, he pulled out a small stack of money and handed it to Chester before speaking to the rest of Team Woodstock. "I took a small amount out of all three of your cuts to use towards repairs for the guild. Got it?" Bernard said.

"Yes, Bernard." Gigantia said with a tone of relief, happy to notice no sign of animosity towards her or Silencio, who nodded in response to Bernards decision.

As Bernard stood up from the table, he noticed Chester motioned closer to him and had begun to whisper in his ear.

"Just know this..." Chester whispered. "We might be guildmates but I still don't like you... And I sure as hell will not let you be taking my spot in this troupe, no matter how much the guild respects you over me. I am the ringmaster, I have worked hard enough for it. As far as you know, you are my rival..." He said with a serious tone.

_"I'm not after your job, you lunatic..."_ Bernard thought as he rolled his eyes from listening to Chester make his challenge to Bernard with Chester and his allies walking away from the table.

"That's it?" Camilla said as she walked over to Bernard and looked at his list.

"Yup. Everyone accounted for- What the!?" Bernard said as moved out from behind the table until he noticed the lights went out in the Psycho Circus guildhall. _"You have got to be kidding me..."_ Bernard thought in the pitch darkness as he was expecting something.

A pop noise went off in the guild as the lights quickly went back on as Bernard opened his eyes and saw hordes of balloons and streamers falling down from the ceiling on top of him. Looking around, the beanie sporting young man, with a twitch in his eyes, saw the various members of Psycho Circus holding party poppers and booze bottles in their hands.

"Alright everybody!" Said the familiar voice of Master Barnum as everyone in the guild looked towards the ceiling as a magic circle appeared and out came the master of the Psycho Circus guild, riding on his roller coaster cart as he flew down from the air and was riding around on the ground floor. "Lets party!" Master Barnum said as he jumped out of his cart and landed on the bar, feet first.

'"Yeeaaahhh!"' The various members of Psycho Circus screamed and echoed throughout the guildhall as Bernard looked at everyones celebratory attitudes with annoyance.

"...You guys partied all night already. Why do you need to party again now...?" Bernard said with a twitch in his eye and a tone of agitation. As he asked his question, Bernard suddenly felt the feeling of an arm draped over his shoulders. Looking to his right, he saw Anatoli appear with a tankard full of alcohol.

"Yeah, we partied yesterday!" Anatoli said loudly to Bernards annoyance as he screamed in his ear. "But you weren't there, Mr. Crankypants!" Anatoli said before he took a swig of the liquor in his hands.

As Bernard looked at the chimp-like man on his ball, he suddenly felt his left arm get grabbed as he looked to his left and noticed Marlene had wrapped her arms around Bernards left arm.

"Come on Bernard! Join in on the fun!" Marlene said in an attempt to get Bernard to cut loose.

"Hell no..." Bernard said with his eyes closed, bothered by the whole situation.

"You shouldn't be so reserved, Lil' Bern." Pietro said from one of the tables as he took a sip from a cocktail glass as Anatoli, Marlene and Bernard looked at the large man. "Today is a day of celebration. You should enjoy it since you didn't get to enjoy yourself the past few days when you came back the first night." He explained.

"No, thank you." Bernard said annoyed as he shook off Anatoli and Marlene. As he removed himself from their hold, Bernard looked over towards the bar and noticed his father watching him as Camilla was behind the bar, fixing drinks for the members of Psycho Circus.

"Come on! Don't be a party pooper Bernard!" Master Barnum shouted from the bar towards his son as Harriets incredibly large beard was moving on its own to hoist up a banner above the guild bar. "It's a special occasion after all!" He said with a tone of humor to his sons chagrin.

"The only thing special I am doing is something I have wanted to do for the past few years I have been gone!" Bernard said angrily as he walked past the crowd of his guildmates as he walked towards the exit to the big top. "Now, if you'll excuse me!" Bernard said with annoyance as he walked out of the guildhall.

As he walked out, the other members of the guild turned their attention towards Camilla, who was looking back at the group with a raised eyebrow of confusion.

"What?" Camilla asked confused.

"Aren't you going to stop him?" Anatoli said.

"Yeah, no barriers or anything?" Harriet said as she hoisted up the banner above the bar.

"No. I already know where he is going." Camilla said with a calm smile on her face. "I'll give him a few minutes to himself and then I'll go find him." She said as she fixed another drink for Pietro.

Meanwhile, in the streets of Hemlock, Bernard was walking through the town and looking around at the buildings around him. The first time in a long time he has spent a moment to look around at his surroundings and remember where he was.

_"Wow... Not much has changed, a lot of these businesses from two years ago are still here."_ Bernard thought as his eyes wandered around and saw a variety of familiar places. As he walked around, light particles started to appear from his chest as Vulp and Corvus formed and appeared, walking and flying next to him, respectively.

"Hey, what are we doing out here?" Corvus asked as he flew next to Bernards head as Vulp walked next to Bernard, trying to keep up.

"We are going to a certain place in town." Bernard said plainly as he looked around.

"Aren't we going to get in trouble or something with the guild for walking out unsupervised or something?" Corvus questioned.

"Probably, but I don't give a damn. All I care about is going to this certain place." Bernard said plainly as he turned down a road.

"Your funeral kid." Corvus joked as he looked around at the brick buildings that comprised Hemlock. "Man, this place is cozy and quaint. It's definitely a nice change of pace from the big cities we were in for the past few weeks." The crow mentioned as Vulp nodded in response.

"That's the sort of place Hemlock tries to be. A small business town like this is always going to try and go for a cushy vibe to get people to come and buy stuff and not feel pressured." Bernard explained as he continued to look around. "Damn it! I know I haven't been gone for too long, where is it?!" Bernard exclaimed loudly as Corvus and Vulp looked at him with confusion.

"What are we looking for anyway?" Corvus said confused as Bernard darted around like a maniac in an attempt to find a certain place.

"We are looking for- Ah ha! There!" Bernard exclaimed with a tone of glee as he pointed ahead at a small building. Turning their heads, the Celestial Spirits looked with raised eyebrows as Bernard moved quickly to get to the front of the building.

Looking up at the sign, the Celestial Spirits read the words; "Kiernan's Pastries" in big bold yellow letters on a pink sign with all the "S's" on the sign looking like churros. Turning their attention towards Bernard, they looked in surprise at the sight of their Lacrima pacemaker-sporting ally drooling profusely from his mouth with eyes full of desire.

"Kid?" Corvus asked with surprise as Bernard wiped the drool from his mouth.

"S-sorry. Oh my god, I'm so grateful this is still here!" Bernard exclaimed happily as he looked through the glass window in front.

"You're grateful for the existence of a pastry shop? No offense but that's kinda weak for things to be grateful for." Corvus said critically.

"You don't understand! This isn't just "a" pastry shop! It's "the" pastry shop! The best place in town for some of the most delicious fresh baked goods possible! It would take someone months to have any luck with finding brownies, cakes, doughnuts and bread better than what this place can make! Or have a relationship with the royal family to get access to goods easier." Bernard explained with drool coming out of his mouth as he gushed over the pastry shop.

"...Don't you have a relationship with the royal family? You almost single handedly stopped a Dragon Slayer from killing people in the capital... If Sorcerer Weekly is to be believed hehehe." Corvus joked as Bernard looked at him with a twitch in his eye.

"Do not bring that up!" Bernard shouted loudly in defiance.

"Oh my." Said the voice of an elderly woman in a bakers outfit as she walked out the front door. "Bernard? Is that you?" The old lady said with curiosity.

"Mrs. Kiernan! You're still around!" Bernard said happily as he talked to the elderly proprietor of the pastry shop.

"I feel like it's been ages since I have seen you around town. How have you been?" Mrs. Kiernan asked.

"Oh you know... It's been a day of the week. Hehe." Bernard joked as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Like father, like son." Corvus said as he looked at Bernard, who darted back to look at the crow for his annoying comment.

"I can take a guess why you're here." Mrs. Kiernan said with a sweet look on her face.

"The best goods in town, of course!" Bernard said a trickle of drool coming out of his mouth.

"Alright, calm down, calm down. I'm just about to open up shop and you can get first picks of the fresh stuff. Will you be buying some for your friends?" Mrs. Kiernan asked as she pointed at the Celestial Spirits, who looked with intrigue.

"You two haven't lived until you tried her desserts. My treat." Bernard said with stars in his eyes as he looked at the Celestial Spirits, taken back by his surprisingly happy vibe.

"S-sure?" Corvus said confused. _"I'm happy the kid isn't being a sourpuss, but is this really something to be so worked up over?" _Corvus thought.

Walking inside, Bernard looked at the variety of cakes and pastries set up neatly underneath glass displays. As he looked, he pressed his entire face against the glass and left breath marks on the panels as he drooled on the glass.

"Someones hungry." Corvus joked as Vulp looked at Bernards happy face.

"What will you boys be having?" Mrs. Kiernan said.

"We'll have eight doughnuts; two cinnamon, one jelly filled, one custard filled, three chocolate with one with sprinkles, one with chocolate sauce and one with frosting and one apple cider donut. Three brownies, two regular and one with fudge on top of it and we'll have three of those crumb bun custards thingies." Bernard said as he listed his order.

"All of that?!" Corvus said in shock as he and Vulp looked with surprise at the large amount of sweets that Bernard asked for.

"I haven't been here in two years! I need to make up for lost time on these delicious confections!" Bernard said crazily as he looked at the Celestial Spirits.

"Alright then. Here you go, Bernard." Mrs. Kiernan said as she gave the beanie sporting young man two bags filled with pastries.

"Oh thank you! Thank you!" Bernard said happily as he grabbed the bags.

"Now the cost." Mrs. Kiernan said as she gave Bernard a receipt as he looked at the amount.

As he looked at the amount, Bernards face turned from one of happiness to one of surprise and despair as he noticed the incredibly large number of Jewels he would have to pay for his delicious desserts. Reaching into his pocket, Bernard pulled out a money clip and looked at how much he had left on him.

"Something wrong?" Corvus asked as he and Vulp looked at Bernard.

"...I can afford the food..." Bernard said with a serious look in his eyes.

"Okay? And?" Corvus questioned.

"...All the money I have left on me is enough to pay for this..." Bernard said as his mouth twitched.

"Wait... You mean you'll have no more money if you buy this food?!" Corvus exclaimed loudly to Vulps equal surprise.

"We spent a lot of money in Crocus and on that long train ride and some might have fallen out of my pocket in the woods around Magnolia when we were hiding from the others that one night..." Bernard said, unsure of what to do.

As he looked at his money clip, he turned his attention towards the pastries and then back to everyone else in the room. Still trying to figure out the best course of action, Bernard swallowed spit and then made a decision.

"Here you go, Mrs. Kiernan..." Bernard said as he gave her the money.

"Really?" Corvus said, unsure of Bernards choice.

"Totally worth it." Bernard said as he walked away with Vulp and Corvus following him out of the pastry shop.

"Have a nice day Bernard! And say hello to your friends and that lovely girl you always had with you for me!" Mrs. Kiernan said as she waved off the trio.

'"Lovely girl?" She talking about your bedmate from this morning? Hehe." Corvus joked as Bernard blushed as they walked away.

"Shut up!" Bernard said with annoyance as he and the Celestial Spirits stopped at a bridge overlooking Nereid Lake as the water flowed through the town.

Putting the pastries down on the ledge, Bernard kicked his legs over the railing ledge and sat down on it. Following suit, Corvus landed on Bernards left side and Vulp jumped up and sat on the railing on Bernards right. Opening up the bags, Bernard handed one of the doughnuts to Corvus, who grabbed it with one of his wings, and one of the crumb buns to Vulp, using his powers to turn his tail into a hand to grab it, as Bernard reached in and grabbed a doughnut for himself.

"Here it comes..." Bernard said happily as he took a bite out of the doughnut with Vulp and Corvus doing the same.

A rush of flavor had spread through the tongues of the trio as their taste buds exploded throughout their mouths. Chocolate, custard, sugar, a cornucopia of deliciousness had spread through the bodies of Bernard, Corvus and Vulp as tears started to well up from their eyes. As their tears dripped out, the trio started to chow down some more on the food in their hands.

"Holy stars!" Corvus said as he finished his doughnut. "How is this so good!?" The crow said happily.

"They use magic with the ingredients during the baking process, it accelerates the flavor to the point all the good parts just become even better... Oh my god, this is heaven!" Bernard said with drool coming out of his mouth as he finished. "Whatcha think Vulp?" Bernard asked of Vulp as he turned his head to look at the fox, enjoying the crumb bun he was given.

"I want another! Give me another!" Corvus requested loudly as he tried to reach for the bag of goods from Bernard, who proceeded to snatch it away from the crow.

"Enjoy the one you already have first!" Bernard exclaimed.

"Ugh fine!" Corvus said as he continued to chow down on the doughnut. "Man... This has been quite the trip." The crow said as he looked at the doughnut, catching Bernard and Vulps attention.

"Whatcha mean?" Bernard said with food in his mouth.

"It's been quite a few weeks of us being together like this and it has been one wild ride on top of that." Corvus said as he started to think about all they have been through for the past number of weeks.

"Yeah... And hard to believe it would lead to me coming back here of all places." Bernard said as he looked out into space as Vulp looked at Corvus.

"Hargeon forest, the docks, the capital city, Magnolia and now we are here in Hemlock." Corvus said, recounting the places the trio have went on their journey. "We've seen a lot of places." The crow said as Vulp nodded in response.

"I never thought I would ever get out of Hargeon after being there for two years." Bernard said as he looked down at the water in the lake.

"Well, maybe you should talk about it." Said a familiar female voice that caught the trios attention.

Turning their heads, the gang saw Camilla standing nearby from where they were, holding a small bag that looked similar to the one they got at Kiernan's Pastries. With a smile on her face, she approached the group sitting on the bridge edge.

"...What are you doing here?" Bernard said confused.

"I'm supposed to be watching you, remember?" Camilla said as she lifted up the bag in her hand. "Had an idea of where you were going too so I thought I'd do you a solid."

"...That what I think it is?" Bernard said with curiosity and interest.

"The usual thing you forget to buy from Kiernan's; the cookies." Camilla said with a smirk as Bernard jumped up from the edge of the bridge and tried to grab the bag from her as she pulled back.

'"Cookies!"' Bernard and Corvus exclaimed loudly as their mouths drooled profusely as they looked at the bag in Camillas hands.

"Calm down, you can have one. Hehe." Camilla said with laughter at the sight of Bernard being weird.

"Guh! I-I am sorry about that." Bernard said as he stopped drooling as he looked at Camilla.

Moving towards the edge, Camilla proceeded to lift up Corvus from his spot next to Bernard and laid the crow on her lap so she could sit next to Bernard, prompting him to smirk in response.

"Whehehe!" Corvus giggled as he enjoyed the feeling of sitting on Camillas lap, laying his head back against her impressively large breasts. "Any reason you are giving me a spot on the best seat in town? Hehe." Corvus said with a smirk as he looked up at Camilla from her lap.

"Hey, don't expect this to be a recurring thing, you pervy bird. I'm only doing this to as a "thank you" for the job you guys did in the show." Camilla said with a serious face towards the bird before her expression softened as she turned towards Bernard. "So, you guys were talking about whats been going on these past few weeks?" She said with interest.

"Why do you want to know?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm interested in hearing the story of what you guys had been through before you got back here. All I have heard about it was from Sorcerer Weekly about what you and these two and that giant slime thing did in Crocus. And something about a ship sinking in Hargeon?" Camilla said.

"Well first things first, me and Vulp ended up helping the kid stop some slave trade operation with some weird bird guy with a jet pack. Then we wound up going to Crocus and stopped some blood sucker who planned to eat the princess and a bunch of other people in town. The moral of the story; we are awesome." Corvus said, giving an extremely condensed version of the whole story of what has happened to the group in that span of time.

"There was a lot more to the story than that!" Bernard said loudly as he looked at Corvus.

"Oh yeah, the kid got offered a job with the kingdom to work in their little task force of "Wolf Knights" or whatever." Corvus said nonchalantly as Camilla raised any eyebrow.

"The Wolf Knights?" Camilla said confused.

"I didn't take it, they were going to want me to dish out executions or something and I didn't want to have that much dangerous responsibility on my hands." Bernard said as he started to eat one of the cookies from the bag that Camilla brought with her.

"Sounds pretty important, how ironic when you have left one important job, you could have gotten another one." Camilla said sarcastically.

"Hey!" Bernard responded.

"Calm down, I'm just kidding." Camilla said with a smile, jokingly. "I'm surprised though. I've heard the term "what goes around, comes back around" before but to think you wound up back in Psycho Circus after leaving. It's a bit funny." Camilla said honestly as she nudged closer to Bernard.

As the Celestial Spirits continued to eat the sweets, Corvus noticed something peculiar as he felt Camilla move whilst seated on the bridge. Looking down, Corvus noticed Camilla has rested the fingers of one of her hands on top of Bernards hand, something the beanie-sporting young man didn't notice as they talked.

_"Well... What do we have here?"_ Corvus thought as he looked at Camilla and Bernards hand placement.

"Yeah, well, don't consider me being here and helping with the show one time means I'm back completely." Bernard said with a shrug as continued to eat his pastries. "Once I get a moment to leave, I will go back to business."

"Huh?" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked up at Bernard, unsure of what he meant.

'"Business?"' Camilla said, equally unsure of what he meant.

"What do you mean "huh?"' Bernard said to Corvus. "Don't tell me you have forgotten why we even went on this little journey in the first place?" Bernard said.

"And that is?" Camilla said with curiosity as Vulp and Corvus looked up at Bernard.

"To get these two back home!" Bernard said with bewilderment as he couldn't believe that Vulp and Corvus forgot.

"Oh uh... Right." Corvus said, as if just remembering. "I actually forgot..." The crow said as he rubbed the back of his head with one of his wings in embarrassment.

"Once everything is squared away here in Hemlock and with Psycho Circus, it's back to getting you and Vulp back to the Celestial Spirit world and in the hands of a legit Celestial Spirit wizard." Bernard said, describing the situation.

As he finished speaking on what their plans were, Vulp made a face of concern as he proceeded to shift his body up from his sitting position next to Bernard and moved towards Bernards lap and laid down on his lap like usual. As Camilla noticed that action, she raised an eyebrow in curiosity at the peculiar action the fox took following Bernards words.

"Hey uh, that would be nice but we have a bit of a problem first." Corvus said.

"What now?!" Bernard exclaimed loudly as he looked at Corvus on Camillas lap.

"We are broke..." Corvus said bluntly as Bernards eyes widened in realization.

"...Oh crap..." Bernard said in response and in frustration.

"You have no money?" Camilla wondered.

"...I spent what I had left a few moments ago... To buy all of this food." Bernard said embarrassed as he looked away.

"Wow. Nice to know you still need someone to keep you from spending every cent of your money on junk food." Camilla said jokingly.

"Oh knock it off!" Bernard said in response.

"She's got you there, hehe- whoa!" Corvus said until he was cut off by the feeling of someone lifting him up and putting him down. Looking back, he noticed Camilla has picked him up off her lap and then proceeded to turn back towards the main road and stood up from the ledge.

"Well this has been fun and informative but I think we need to head back before everything is set and done." Camilla said as she started to walk back in the direction of the guildhall.

"What do you mean?" Bernard wondered as Corvus and Vulp looked at her walking away.

"Figured we should get back before everyone's done making their decision on what happens next." Camilla said as she turned back towards Bernard and the Celestial Spirits.

'"Decision?"' Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"You didn't spot the banner that Harriet was putting up over the bar, did you?" Camilla said as she was starting to chuckle.

"...No?" Bernard said as he, Vulp and Corvus shook their heads, signifying a negative reaction.

"Well, here is a real "ball kicker" for you three." Camilla said as she approached the group. "The banner over the bar that was put up says; "Bernards Punishment Party."' She said with a smirk as the trios eyes started to widen. "Everybody in the guild right now is figuring out what to give you for your official punishment for abandoning the guild and not telling anyone where you went. I need to get back so I can see what we are going to do with you. Laters!" She said with a smile as she walked away.

As she walked away, Bernards jaw dropped and whatever snack he had in his mouth fell out onto the ground with Corvus and Vulp dropping their mouths with a similar shocked expression.

'"Whaaaattt!?"' Bernard and Corvus screamed loudly as their voices echoed through the town of Hemlock.

* * *

**...I could go for a cookie right now... Nevermind, anyway! Bernard has finished his work of mitigating the issues at Psycho Circus by handing out money to the members of the guild and even mending his issues with Chester Woodstock and his team for the time being. But all the young man wanted was a nice snack at his favorite pastry shop with said "snack time" being ruined by an unfortunate discovery: that a party is going on in the guild of what official punishment he will be receiving for abandoning the guild. What fun! What will happen to Bernard? Time will tell? And what time? The next chapter obviously! **

**(Authors note: hey sorry this took so long, life stuff has been getting in the way somewhat. New projects and the sort. I hope all is well and thank you for the patience with me.)**


	21. Chapter 21

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guild, 12:03 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"I am going to drink so much booze, my urine will practically be one hundred percent liquor! Ahahaha!" Anatoli shouted at the top of his lungs as he stood on top of his googly-eyed ball with a tankard in his hand, overflowing with alcohol.

"Yuck!" Marlene exclaimed in revulsion as she sat at a table next to the chimp-like man as the other members of Psycho Circus cheered for Anatoli for his crass joke.

"That boy needs to tone down the weird stuff that comes out of his mouth." Harriet said as her beard formed a hand and lifted up a glass full of alcohol.

"If he didn't say whatever he wants, he wouldn't be himself." Master Barnum said calmly as he walked past the table the two female members of the guild were sitting at. As he walked past, he looked around at the members of the guild with a smile on his face, delighted at the sight of everyone enjoying themselves. _"This is a good party. Especially the theme."_ Master Barnum thought as he walked past a certain individual tied to a chair.

Sitting in a chair with a rope wrapped around his upper body and around his ankles was Bernard with a disgruntled look on his face, that also had a piece of tape over his mouth to prevent him from complaining. Sitting next to him on the floor with rope around their bodies and bandages over their mouths were Corvus and Vulp. As Vulp laid on the ground calmly, Corvus was violently jumping around on the ground in an attempt to free himself.

"Mfifh slufghs." Bernard said with tape over his mouth in an attempt to say; "This sucks."'

"Nopg Miffdin! Mi fought fe fer donfh wifh biffing tied kup!" Corvus said with the tape covering his beak in an attempt to say; "No kidding! I thought we were done with being tied up!"'

"Oh cheer up." Camilla said as she passed by the trio while holding a platter with drinks on it. "Once everything is decided, you won't have to sit like around like a captive anymore." She said with a warm smile as she walked away, Bernards eye twitching with a blush on his face at the sight of her smile.

"Meelin Mfiff? Hehe." Corvus mumbled as he attempted to say; "Feeling stiff? Hehe" to Bernard.

"Mfew youf!" Bernard mumbled as he attempted to "Screw you!" to Corvus. Suddenly, a spotlight then appeared over Bernard and the Celestial Spirits as they looked around.

"Ladies and gentlemen! It's now time for our special feature!" Master Barnum shouted as he stood in front of Bernard and looked around at the rest of the guildmembers, who were looking with anticipation. "For the official welcoming back of our good friend and comrade, Bernard! We will now begin the official punishment game!" Master Barnum announced loudly.

"Yeeaahhh!" Screamed the other guildmembers of the Psycho Circus guild in amusement as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits begun to sweat in confusion and worry about what will happen to them. Walking back over to the trio was Camilla who proceeded to remove the tape over their mouths to allow them to speak.

"If you have anything to say, say it now." Camilla said with a smile as she looked at the trio. As she was removing the tape, Master Barnum walked around the guildhall with his top hat held upside down as the members of the guild had written words onto slips and put them inside the guild masters hat.

"Oh, I got something to say, hot boobs! First of all-" Corvus shouted in protest until Bernard spoke up and caught him off.

"Just get this over with..." Bernard said with a tired expression.

"That's all you have to say?! Nothing you want to complain about?!" Corvus continued to shout.

"The sooner this is over, the sooner we can get back to what we are supposed to do." Bernard said with exhaustion. _"Hopefully..."_ Bernard thought, hoping for the best solution.

"Has everyone got their ballots put in?" Master Barnum asked of the guild.

"No, not yet. Here you go." Camilla said as she put her own ballot in the hat. Waving his hand over it, the paper ballots in the hat disappeared one after another until one remained within the showmans hat.

"Oh god, what is this..." Corvus said with a tone of annoyance.

"He's using his Carnival Tricks Magic to make all the paper pieces disappear." Bernard explained to Corvus and Vulp.

"And with this slip of paper... All will be decided!" Master Barnum said overdramatically. "Or at least until someone says otherwise!" He said jokingly as the members of Psycho Circus started to boo before his joke went any further.

"Just get on with it!" Anatoli screamed.

"Hurry it up!" Marlene shouted.

"Quiet!" Bernard screamed from his chair as everyone stopped and looked at him. "Will you just get it over with?!" Bernard said as he looked at his smirking father.

"And the winner is... Drumroll!" Master Barnum said as the members of the guild started to bang in a rhythm on the tables. "... Ms. Camilla Hagen!" He said loudly as some of the members of the guild cheered and others groaned.

"Oh damn it!" Anatoli said in frustration. "Why did she win?! I demand a recount!"

"Oh calm down! He'll get off leniently this way." Marlene said.

"I wanted to make it so Bernard had to do something disgusting!" Anatoli said with frustration for not winning.

"Like what? Wipe everyone in the guilds bums in the bathroom like some attendant?" Pietro said confused.

"Probably!" Anatoli shouted.

"Gross..." Marlene said disgusted.

Huddled together was Master Barnum and Camilla as they talked to one another. As Bernard sat in his chair, he looked down at Corvus and Vulp who were confused.

"What's going on?" Corvus said confused as he and Vulp looked up at Bernard.

"They wrote their names down on papers and whomever came out of the hat will decide our fate. I really hope whatever she comes up with doesn't set us back a ton..." Bernard said to the Celestial Spirits.

"You mean as badly as you spending all your money on junk food?" Corvus said with a straight face to Bernards chagrin.

"Oh marvelous! Simply marvelous, Ms. Hagen!" Master Barnum explained as the guildmembers watched him. "Ms. Hagen has given her official punishment for Bernard. Effective immediately!"

_'"Oh crap..."' _Bernard and Corvus thought as their eyes widened.

"First of Bernards punishments; he will be reinstated as an "associated member" of the Psycho Circus guild with all of his previous duties reinstated!" Master Barnum said with glee.

"Wait, "all of my duties?!"' Bernard said with confusion.

"Minus the ringmaster duty, of course, as we have Mr. Woodstock to take care of that." Master Barnum said.

_"And that's one less headache."_ Camilla thought as she glanced towards Bernards direction.

"So he will be returning to custodial work and his prior work as show manager. Secondly!" Master Barnum said as he continued to list Camillas ideas.

"Ok what now..." Corvus said as he worried.

"Bernard and his pet friends will be living on site here at the guild in Ms. Hagens home next door and be supervised by her for the foreseeable future until otherwise!" Master Barnum shouted as the guild members laughed.

"Ain't you a lucky dog, Bernard?! Hahaha!" A random guildmember said.

"We gonna hear about some hanky-panky in the near future?!" Another guildmember said jokingly.

"Oh shut up! It's not gonna be like that!" Bernard screamed in defiance. _"...As long as I don't sleepwalk into her bed again and do something worse..."_ He thought embarrassingly.

"And last, but certainly not least!" Master Barnum said as he made one more declaration to the guild.

_"Okay, one last thing... This all so far has been pretty manageable. I don't have to worry about being the ringmaster anymore with the one idiot around and I just got to avoid doing anything to Camilla in her sleep. Easy." _Bernard thought with relief whilst still being curious of the nature of his final punishment.

"We will adding an addition to the guilds request board!" Master Barnum said to the confusion of everyone in the guild, minus Camilla.

"An "addition?" What does that mean?" Nole, one of the conjoined twins said.

"It means an add-on or an extra aspect... Stupid twit." Andy, the other conjoined twin said insultingly.

"What did you say, jerk!?" Nole responded back.

"Enough!" Camilla shouted to prevent any conflict between the twins, causing them to stand up straight as a sign of compliance. "Let the master finish." She continued.

"As I was saying, the new addition to our guild request board for job requests. We will be adding a note board on it." Master Barnum explained. "And the note board will be for members of the guild who will be getting additional companionship on their jobs from our little friend here." He said as he pointed at Bernard.

"...Huh?" Bernard in confusion as the Celestial Spirits looked with equal unsureness.

"The final punishment! Bernard and his friends will be assisting on guild job requests for anyone who requests it on the board! Free of charge!" Master Barnum declared to the members of the guild as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits eyes widened in shock.

"Awwwweeee yeeeeaaahhh!" The members of the guild screamed in agreeance to the final punishment.

'"What?!"' Bernard and Corvus screamed together as Vulps jaw dropped to the floor.

"What do you mean we have to "assist?!"' Corvus complained.

"What do you mean by "free of charge?!"' Bernard complained in an aggressive tone as Camilla walked over and whispered in his ear.

"Your big punishment is that you are going to be participating in guild jobs and helping out the members of the guild with their work for free. All the money the jobs are worth will go straight into their pockets so you won't be getting a cent." Camilla whispered with a smirk on her face.

"Wha-what?!" Bernard screamed in shock. "How is that fair for me!? I am not even a wizard and you're making me do wizard requests?!" He replied in aggravation.

"You can figure out what to do while the punishment is in effect." Camilla said with a smile as she winked at him, his eye twitching in annoyance in response.

"So much for us leaving any time soon..." Corvus said as he looked up at Bernard and noticed that the boy was starting to turn white.

"And now..." Master Barnum said as he took off his top hat and reached into it, pulling out a small white board with a marker. "Who would like first dibs at my son being your lackey on jobs!" He said with a smirk as the crowd of guildmembers exploded with the desire to write down their own names.

"Me! Me! Me!" Anatoli screamed with the desire to boss around Bernard.

"Let me have him!" Marlene shouted.

"I can finally have someone to agree with me on stuff!" Nole said as he raised his arm high.

"Shut up you dumbass! He is helping me!" Andy screamed as he looked at his conjoined twin.

"I am pulling a name out of my hat from the leftovers from earlier." Master Barnum said as he reached back into his hat after handing the board off to Camilla. "And our winner is..." He said as he pulled it out and handed to Camilla who wrote it down with the marker.

"Anatoli Sokolov." Camilla said casually as she flipped the board around to show what she written.

"Booyah!" Anatoli screamed as the other members of the guild looked at him with aggravation at their failure to secure Bernards help on their wizarding jobs.

"...I feel like I am in the lowest circle of hell right now..." Bernard said as he sat in the chair, looking at the floor as Corvus and Vulp looked at him.

"And because of the situation, we are associated with this "help."' Corvus said as he stared off into space with a similar depressed look. Appearing behind them and starting to untie them was Camilla.

"Don't worry, it won't be so bad." Camilla said in an attempt to reassure her downtrodden friend.

"Hey, Bernie!" Anatoli said, catching Bernard, Camilla and the Celestial Spirits attention. "I got us a job buddy!"

"...Great..." Bernard said with a twitch in his eye. _"I swear to god..."_

"We are going fishing!" Anatoli screamed as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits raised their eyebrows.

"...I don't own a fishing rod." Bernard said with an annoyed expression.

"Oh... Don't worry. We aren't fishing for any ol' sea fish. Hehehe." Anatoli said with a smirk.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Akane Beach, 2:54 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

After the decision of Bernards fate was chosen at the Psycho Circus guild, the young man was staring off into the ocean as he stood on the sand of Akane Beach, a well known tourist location in southern Fiore. Its beautiful beach area was filled with happy individuals soaking up the suns rays and nearby was the large and massive Akane Resort that served a multitude of guests on vacation.

As Bernard looked off at the ocean, sporting black shorts and a grey tank top with his usual beanie on his head, he looked at the water as he smelled the fresh air and took a deep hard breath.

_"First time going to a beach and it's only because I am working that I am even here..."_ Bernard thought with annoyance as he looked to the side and spotted Corvus and Vulp playing in the water. As Vulp splashed around and doggy paddled in the water closest to the shoreline, Corvus reached his head in a deeper area near the shoreline and pulled his head up with a fish in his mouth.

"Hey! Hey, Vulp!" Corvus said as Vulp looked at him holding a fish in his mouth. "Gonna see if I can catch a big one!" Corvus said as he spit the fish onto the sand and went back in the water to try and grab another.

"At least they are having fun..." Bernard said to himself as he looked at the Celestial Spirits enjoying themselves. Looking around at the men, women and children enjoying the beach and the water, Bernard started to calm down somewhat. "Eh, you know what... I am at the beach, I should enjoy it a little." He said to himself as he grabbed his shirt and started to lift it up.

As he was starting to lift up his shirt, however, Bernard stopped as a group passed by him.

"Come on guys, lets head in and get some cold ones." Said a large and muscular man with a short blonde spikey hair style with a tattoo of a guild logo and some tribal tattoos around it on his left side chest, wearing swim trunks with a lightning bolt design on them.

"Yes, Laxus!" Said another man with a muscularly fit body in a black speedo with a weird long green hairstyle. "Come Evergreen! Bickslow!" The speedo wearing man said to another muscular man wearing a grey visor over his eyes wearing a speedo and a curvaceous woman with wavy brown hair and glasses with a white leopard print bikini on her as they followed the muscular men.

"Calm down, Freed. Your clinginess is showing." The woman named Evergreen said to the green haired man named Freed.

"Talk about being a lapdog! Haha!" The man in the visor named Bickslow said as he stuck his shockingly long tongue with a guild logo on it.

As they walked by him, Bernard looked down at his body and noticed the plain shape of his form and the Lacrima pacemaker in his chest and started to feel disappointed internally as he slumped his shoulders at his unimpressive body.

"...Maybe not..." Bernard said as he rolled his shirt back down as Anatoli, dressed in his same attire as usual, flew overheard on his googly-eyed ball, powered by his Wind Magic.

"Alright Bernie! Any minute now!" Anatoli said as he looked downward at the ground where Bernard was standing.

"Are you sure?" Bernard questioned.

"Yup! The migration pattern for the rare flying "winged fish" to come through this area should be very soon! Once they arrive, I'll form a tornado with my magic and knock them all down for you and the pets to pick up!" Anatoli explained as he looked off at the horizon.

"Yeah, yeah. And how much is this job supposed to be worth?" Bernard asked.

"A good 200,000 Jewels!" Anatoli said as he sat down on his ball.

"That much for some fish?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"Client wants a ton of the things so we are gonna need to smack loads and loads of the bastards." Anatoli said as he stretched his arms in preparation.

"...Great. And now I am going to have to carry twelve dozen or more things of winged fish." Bernard complained.

"We could just use your massive slime beast and carry all of the fish that-...way." Anatoli said until he was caught off guard by a very distracting figure approaching the two young men talking.

"I am not calling out Formosa to just carry a bunch of- whoa..." Bernard said until he turned his attention in the same direction Anatoli was looking and saw a sight that nearly caused his brain to shut off as he started to stare. Joining them in staring were other men on the beach turned their heads and fixating on a certain woman walking on the beach towards Bernard, Anatoli and the Celestial Spirits, who were done playing in the water.

Approaching them was Camilla, sporting an attractive black two-piece swimsuit with a red and white floral design on the top part. Around her waist was a long red and white towel that stretched down to her ankles without dragging on the sand as she wore sandals and her hair tied back in a long ponytail. As Anatoli and Corvus looked at her, blood started to trickle out of their noses with arousal.

'"Humina humina humina…"' Corvus and Anatoli said in unison as they looked up and down Camillas impressive and beautiful form as she came forward.

"Feeling the heat?" Camilla said as she looked at Anatoli, blood dripping out of his nostrils.

"Oh nothing, natural reaction for me in the presence of "pretty flowers."' Anatoli said as he wiped his nose as he looked at Camillas breasts, where the floral design on her swimsuit was.

"Yup... "pretty flowers."' Corvus said with a smirk and drool coming out of a side of his mouth as he stared at her chest. As she rolled her eyes at the obvious lewd jokes coming out the two perverts mouths, she noticed Bernard staring at her with wide eyes, almost as if he was glued to the sight of her.

"See something you like?" Camilla joked as Bernard suddenly jerked his head in another direction in an attempt to stop staring.

"No! No, its just- uhhh…" Bernard mumbled as he tried to stop looking at Camilla. _"Holy crap, what an outfit!" _Bernard thought as he glanced back towards Camilla and was struggling to not have her notice his reaction.

_"Looks like someones flustered."_ Camilla thought with a smirk as she looked away from Bernard towards the ocean. "Hey, Anatoli, any sign of the winged fish?" She asked as Anatoli looked away back towards the sea and looked off into the horizon.

"Speak of the devil!" Anatoli said as he stood on his floating ball.

Approaching the shores was a wide variety of dark red and green fish with incredibly dope-like facial expressions and wings on the sides. Soaring through the air, the eccentric "winged fish" begun to approach Akane Beach as they all continued to retort their usual annoying line: "I can fly!" out of their weird mouths.

"Come to papa!" Anatoli shouted as he spun on top of his ball. Spinning in place as the ball spun with him, wind begun to form around him in a spiral at intense speeds, a tornado forming around the him as the bottom of it hit the sandbar and caused sand to kick up violently.

"Anatoli! Knock it off!" Bernard shouted as the sand started to fly around and started to hit him.

"Happens every time..." Camilla said as she put up a barrier box around herself to prevent sand from hitting her as she turned her head and noticed the other tourists and guests were starting to get scared from the harsh sandstorm being kicked up by Anatolis Wind Magic. "Hey Anatoli! Stop the maelstrom, you are scaring the beachgoers!" She shouted to stop Anatoli as he stopped spinning.

"Then what the hell are we going to do about the goddamn fish!?" Anatol said as the fish continued to approach.

"Let Bernard handle it." Camilla said as she dispelled the box around her and looked at Bernard, who was confused.

"Me?! How the hell am I supposed to handle this crap!?" Bernard questioned in frustration as Corvus flew over and landed on Bernards shoulder.

"Not like the kid can throw rocks at the birds and expect to hit a good dozen of 'em." Corvus said jokingly on his shoulder as Camilla looked at the pair of them.

"Like hell I would whip a rock at a bunch of stupid fish!" Bernard said as he looked at Corvus.

"Only thing you can do as far as I know." Corvus said with snark to Bernards chagrin.

"Oh really..." Bernard said with a smirk filled with rage as he put one of his hands on the crow, transferring energy from his Lacrima pacemaker into the Celestial Spirits. "How's that for nothing!" He shouted in frustration.

"Ha! That's a ton of energy! Whoa!" Corvus said as his body begun to spark red and white electricity. Flying up into the air, Corvus was standing in the direction of where the flying fish were coming from.

"Now use my damn energy, you stupid dodo!" Bernard screamed insultingly.

"I am a crow! Not a stupid dodo!" Corvus screamed as he let loose a ton of his electrical energy out of his body and discharged it towards the flying fish, zapping them and causing them to fall out of the sky, landing on the edge of the water and on the sand of the beach.

"Well... Damn..." Anatoli said as he floated back towards the ground, the fish continuing to plummet out of the sky.

"Not bad." Camilla said with a smile as she looked at Bernard as he and Corvus were arguing as Vulp looked up at them with an apathetic look to their continuous bickering.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Town near Akane Beach, 3:41 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

In a small town nearby from the Akane Beach and Resort, the members of Psycho Circus had hauled a large fishing net filled with knocked out and partially electrocuted and burnt flying fish to a small restaurant in the town.

'Oh thank you! Thank you!" Said a small man in a chef outfit as he looked at the large haul of winged fish in the net.

"No "thank yous" are necessary. Just a simple bag of money will be nice." Anatoli joked as Bernard and Camilla looked at him with annoyance.

_"Classy..."_ Bernard, dressed in a white shirt, brown button up with the sleeves rolled up, blue pants and gray sneakers with his usual beanie on his head, thought.

_"Way to make yourself seem like a nimrod, Anatoli..."_ Camilla thought, now sporting a blue V-neck short sleeved shirt, blue shorts that exposed much of her legs, light brown open-toed heel shoes, a red sweater tied around her waist by the sleeves, a pair of bracelets on her left wrist and a necklace around her neck with her hair still tied back in a long ponytail.

"Oh right! Here is the money!" The small chef said as he held up a stack of brown Jewel banknotes. "Shall I divide it amongst the three of you?" He said as he looked at Camilla and Bernard.

"No thank you, I am just here as an observer. No need to give me anything." Camilla said earnestly.

"I'll take my half." Bernard said bluntly, hoping no one will mind as he isn't supposed to be taking any kind of reward.

"Very well then, here you go." The chef said as he split the money between Anatoli and Bernard.

"Awesome- Hey!" Bernard said happily until Camilla swiped the money out of his hands.

"Nuh-uh, Bernard. You aren't allowed to receive any payment per your punishment." Camilla said as she held the money in her hands as she looked at Bernard with a serious look.

"Sorry, Bernie. Looks like I will just be taking that!" Anatoli said as he attempted to take the money from Camillas hands but she moved out of the way to prevent him from grabbing it.

"Nope, you ain't getting it either, Anatoli. The client gave this money to Bernard but he isn't allowed to have it so since I am supposed to be overseeing him, I'll be holding onto it." Camilla said as she put the money in her pocket.

"Seriously?!" Bernard complained.

"At least let me have it! I am making less than what this job was supposed to be and I was the one who applied for it!" Anatoli said, also complaining.

"And yet Bernard and his pet friends took care of everything." Camilla said as she stuck her tongue out towards Anatoli, mocking him as he slumped his shoulders in defeat.

"Excuse me!" The chef said, catching the Psycho Circus members attention. "I've overheard your little conversation and maybe I can offer a little something as a token of thanks? It's not money but something just as fine." The chef said.

"Fine! I'll take whatever at this point!" Bernard said, just wanting some kind of compensation.

"Alright then, I'll allow this." Camilla said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Oh marvelous!" The chef said as he moved over to the bag of winged fish. Reaching into the bag, he pulled out two of the more cooked fish. "You may have these as well!"

"The fish?" Anatoli said with a raised eyebrow.

"They are better served grilled or sautéed but these fish, like this, are still completely edible! Tons of proteins and vitamins and minerals! A fine delicacy that everyone enjoys!" The chef explained.

"Uhhh… I'll pass. I am not too hungry to be honest." Anatoli said as he scratched the back of his head.

"Your loss, my gain. Give me the fish. I'm very hungry." Bernard said.

"I'll try some too." Camilla said with interest as the chef handed the two fish over to them.

Taking a bite out of the fish, Bernard and Camilla started to eat the winged fish. As Camilla took a small bite out of the fish, Bernard proceeded to put most of the one his was given into his mouth. Chewing heavily through it, Bernard swallowed the whole fish down his mouth.

"Did you eat the bones too?" Camilla said as she stopped eating to look at Bernard.

"I think Corvus' lightning melted the bones inside that fish I just- Blergh!" Bernard said until he started to feel like a lump entered his stomach. A sudden and harsh feeling of pain then begun to surge through Bernards body as his mouth started to foam up and nausea begun to set in as his eyes started spinning.

"Whoa?! Bernie?!" Anatoli said in surprise as Bernard fell backwards and landed against the ground with a heavy thud.

"Oh my god! Bernard!" Camilla said as she threw away the fish and knelt down to check on Bernard.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Local Medicine man's facility, 4:47 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Standing in the hallway of a small stone building that was used by a medicine man for magical healing was Camilla, nearby was a small couch with Corvus standing on one of the cushions as Camilla paced around, waiting for the medicine man to exit the room where Bernard was. Suddenly, the door opened as a small man wearing a brown cloak with a large moustache came out.

"Anything?" Camilla asked of the small man.

"Good news, I used some potions and he will be fine with some proper bed rest." The medicine man said to Camilla, who sighed in relief.

"Oh thank goodness..." Camilla said as she walked over to the couch and sat next to Corvus.

"Just let the young man rest." The medicine man said as he walked away. As he walked away, Corvus spoke up as he looked at Camilla.

"Well, it's good to know the kid will be alright. Actually, where is the monkey man?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"I told him to go home, I am supposed to be watching Bernard so I said it was okay for him to leave." Camilla said with her arms crossed and staring up at the ceiling as she leaned back against the couch.

"Ahhh." Corvus muttered as he stared off into space.

Suddenly, everything got quiet as Camilla and Corvus just didn't say anything to eachother, their mouths shut as they sat around waiting.

_"For the love of the stars, this is awkward..."_ Corvus thought as he moved his eyes towards Camilla as he noticed the S-class wizards worried yet impatient expression. _"Actually..."_ The Celestial Spirit thought as he thought of something to ask.

"So..." Corvus said, catching the attention of Camilla who wasn't looking at the crow. "The kids been waking up rather strangely lately."

"...Oh? How so?" Camilla said with her arms still folded and still not looking at Corvus.

"He says he keeps waking up with this feeling of strawberries in his mouth." Corvus said casually.

"Must be some prank Anatoli has been pulling on him." Camilla said.

"You think so? Because we asked him awhile ago and he said no." Corvus said with a raised eyebrow. _"And I noticed you own a lot of strawberry flavored lipstick in your makeup box back home."_ Corvus thought without asking Camilla.

"Probably lying..." Camilla said as her eyes looked away in a different direction.

"...Uh huh..." Corvus muttered suspiciously. Turning his head towards her, Corvus thought of another question. "Quite the swimsuit you had on earlier today."

"...Thanks..." Camilla said nonchalantly.

"Really made you stand out on the beach. Noticed the kid couldn't stop staring, I know I couldn't." Corvus asked casually.

"I could tell..." Camilla said, becoming slightly annoyed by the constant questioning he was giving her.

"However, I did notice something odd though." Corvus said with curiosity. "There was a little tag stuck to the back of the bottoms of the swimsuit underneath the towel part you had wrapped around it, like one of those little price tags... As if the swimsuit was just bought that day... A swimsuit that looked like it was bought to impress someone..." Corvus said with more suspicion.

"...I don't know what you are talking about. I bought that swimsuit awhile ago but never put it on until the best possible moment." Camilla said as she turned her head away from the crow, attempting to avoid eye contact with the Celestial Spirit. _"Crap..."_ She thought begrudgingly.

"I see..." Corvus said calmly as he continued to look at her. "Actually, there was one thing I wanted to ask from this morning. Something I happened to notice from back at the tent house."

"...What?" Camilla responded. _"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" _Camilla thought with frustration as sweat started to drip from her head.

"...There was some marks on the floor I noticed this morning after I came out of the kids Lacrima. And it looked like markings from the direction of the kids floor mat to a certain hot young woman's bed... Like he was dragged from his bed into your bad and was stuck in a rather "interesting" position like someone had made him place his arms around- Mref!" Corvus continued to talk until he suddenly felt the feeling of a hand around his neck that cut him off from speaking as Camilla turned around and grabbed him by the neck.

"If you say anything to him, I am going to tear your beak off..." Camilla threatened the crow Celestial Spirit with an angry expression on her face.

"It's okay! I won't..." Corvus struggled to say as Camilla continued to choke him with her hands before letting him go. "Ugh... Okay, one last thing I want to ask; why have you been doing all this "secret flirting" with him?" Corvus questioned as Camilla put her hands on her head.

"...Fine, you want an answer. I'll give you a damn answer." Camilla said as she looked at Corvus with a frustrated look in her eyes. "I like Bernard... A lot... And not like "some friend..."' Camilla said, revealing her hidden feelings for Bernard.

"Wow... Mind me asking why? No offense to your tastes but I didn't peg a powerful S-class wizard with a nice rack like you to be interested in a guy like him." Corvus said with a raised eyebrow as Camilla sighed.

"I've known him since we were kids and even when we were children, I always got the feeling of being around him being where I felt "decent."' Camilla said. "After the incident happened, I started to like him more and more because I enjoyed seeing him work so hard for everyone else's sakes. There was always something cathartic to me about seeing him being in charge of things at Psycho Circus. Made me appreciate him on a certain level..." Camilla said with a red face as she twiddled her fingers.

"Yeah and then you wanted to smash his face in for leaving the guild?" Corvus wondered.

"After he left and I took a break from looking for where he was... I tried dating some guys from other wizard guilds like Blue Pegasus. Wound up coming out of the experiences of dating them learning why I liked Bernard in the first place." Camilla said as she leaned back against the wall.

"And that would be?" Corvus continued to wonder.

"I like men who can hold conversations and have more brain cells than magical power..." Camilla said bluntly as she looked at Corvus.

"Well this is interesting. Hehe." Corvus joked as he listened to Camilla talk about why she likes Bernard. "Why don't you just tell him that you like him?"

"Because he is a stubborn prick!" Camilla shouted out loud and put her hands on the sides of her head. "No matter what happens, he wants to not be around the guildmembers or me and doesn't want to take over as guild master when he is practically one of the only people I think is qualified for the damn job!" She explained with a frustrated tone.

"Aren't S-class wizards the ones who are the most likely to be in charge of guilds after their guild masters retire?" Corvus said with intrigue.

"Between me and the other guy, we are incredibly not qualified while Bernard frankly is. He has the leadership skills, the drive, the conviction, the determination to make things happen, he cares about our guild more then anyone."

"He also doesn't want to be around because he feels like garbage that everyone has treated him so nicely despite viewing himself so terribly." Corvus stated as Camilla started to scratch her head.

"...I just want him to stay in the guild... Back when he was working as the manager for the show, I was actually working for him as an assistant to make his life easier... Something I definitely failed to do, given how things turned out..." Camilla said as Corvus looked at her expression, a face full of unfulfilled desire. "Heck, this whole punishment I even came up with for him was just so he could be around his friends so he would feel like we appreciate his contribution... But it doesn't look like it's panning out... There has to be some way to get him to stick around...?" Camilla said as she started to try and think.

"...Then make him by taking him!" Corvus shouted.

"Huh?" Camilla muttered as she turned towards the crow.

"Think about it." Corvus said as he pointed his wing at the door to the room he was resting in. "He is currently in there, no longer feeling sick and is laying in there... On a bed..." Corvus continued to explain.

"...You aren't implying I go in there and do something with him, do you?" Camilla said with confusion at what Corvus wanted her to do.

"You are never going to get what you want if you don't push him down and take it! And what you want is in that room just waiting for a beauty to have her way with him!" Corvus said with vigor as Camillas eyes widened with surprise.

"And just how is me "having my way" with him going to convince him into staying in the guild?" Camilla asked as she was getting weirded out by the crows methodology.

"You saw how he couldn't take your eyes off you at the beach. And I know a part of him was loving the feeling of cuddling with you in your bed. The only thing that is going to break down the walls that separate him from being with you, the guild and everything else is that he needs to "know" it's alright. That's where you come in." Corvus explained. "Your job is to make his life easier, well, go make his life "easier" in the ultimate way possible!"

Camilla, looking at Corvus with a dumbfounded look on her face, stared at Corvus with a face full of frustration until she swallowed the spit in her mouth and started to think about it.

_"...Is this bird completely insane?! There's no way Bernard would let me do that to him... Heck, even I am not completely on board with the idea!"_ Camilla thought as she continued to look confused at Corvus.

"Still don't believe me? Well fine then." Corvus said as he crossed his wings. "Guess the kid will just continue to think you don't like him." The crow said casually, prompting Camilla to look at him with a wide eyed look.

"...Excuse me?" Camilla said with confusion

"Don't you remember from the bathroom? The kid walked out saying; "all she looks at me with is disdain." He doesn't think you like him." Corvus said as he turned his head away.

After making his statement, Camilla proceeded to look off at the wall on the other side of the room and started to think some more.

_"...He seriously thinks I hate him..."_ Camilla thought with a twitch in her eyes.

_"Hook, line and sinker! Hehehe."_ Corvus thought as he glanced back to see her reaction. Turning her head back towards the Celestial Spirit, Camilla spoke up.

"Okay... If it makes him stop seeing me as some sort of angry jailer, what should I say and do?" Camilla said, finally agreeing to go along with Corvus' idea.

"Okay, come here." Corvus said as he proceeded to get closer to Camilla and begun to whisper in her ear his plan. Quietly speaking, he listed several things for Camilla to try and appeal to Bernard romantically and physically.

"...Man... You are one pervy bird." Camilla said as she stood up and backed away from Corvus.

"You call it "pervy," I call it "knowledgeable."' Corvus said with a proud smirk on his beak. "So? Whatcha think?" He wondered.

"...Knowing Bernard... He probably wouldn't know what to do and let me do anything without a struggle…" Camilla said as she put her hand under her chin and pondered what Corvus suggested.

"Yeah! Exactly! Now go in there and get him wrapped around your finger!" Corvus exclaimed with an encouraging tone. _"I have zero idea if this will work but this is going to make me laugh my head off regardless! Hahaha!" _Corvus laughed internally.

Meanwhile, inside the room where he was recovering, Bernard was laying on his bed wearing only his pants and his beanie on his head as Vulp laid on top of the young mans waist in a comforting manner.

"Note to self, Vulp..." Bernard said as he laid his head against the pillow as Vulp stuck his head up to look at him. "I am never eating fish with wings ever again... Ugh..." He said disgruntled as he looked up at the ceiling.

As he laid down, Vulp proceeded to move off from laying on Bernard and proceeded to rub and nuzzle his head against Bernards cheek. Continuing to rub his furry fox body against Bernard like a dog towards its owner, Bernard proceeded to sit up and lightly push the fox Celestial Spirit away from him.

"Hey, cut it out Vulp. I get it, you're worried but I am fine." Bernard said as he put his hand on the fox and begun to pet his head. _"The heck is the matter with him... He's been so clingy and affectionate since this morning."_ Bernard thought with suspicions as he petted Vulp.

Suddenly, the door to the room opened as Vulp and Bernard turned their heads and noticed Camilla had entered the room, closing the door behind her as she entered. As she came in, Vulp looked at Bernard for a second and then back at Camilla before suddenly turning back into light particles and entering Bernards exposed Lacrima pacemaker.

"Oh uh... Hey." Bernard said as he looked at Camilla. _"Wonder why he left?"_ Bernard thought as he wondered why Vulp disappeared.

"Hey." Camilla said casually. _"He has no shirt on... This just got a whole lot easier."_ Camilla thought as she approached Bernards bed.

"Well, I didn't expect this crap to happen..." Bernard said as he sat back and laid his head against the pillow of the bed once again.

"Well that's what you get for trying to eat a winged fish with its bones melted on the inside." Camilla said as she proceeded to sit on the edge of the bed next to Bernard.

"Hey, you ate some too." Bernard responded.

"Yeah but I probably have a stronger constitution than you. Hehe." Camilla joked with a slight smile on her face.

"Oh ha ha." Bernard retorted sarcastically. "Hey, where's Anatoli?" Bernard asked.

"I told him to go back because his work was done here and since I am in charge of looking after you, I am still here." Camilla explained as she looked at Bernard.

"Ahhh I see." Bernard said calmly as he looked at the ceiling. "Well, you are going to be here awhile, medicine man said the sickness in my stomach is mostly gone but I should rest and relax all night to be safe until it passes." He continued.

"Oh, well then..." Camilla said as Bernard noticed she took off her shoes and placed them on the floor as she put her legs up on the bed. "Because I overheard something the doctor said that might be of some help." Camilla said as she flashed Bernard a look of interest.

"What? He said something else?" Bernard said as he sat back up.

"Yes, he mentioned something to me about how this little bit of illness you have is kinda similar to a regular cold that a little bit of sweat could help rid you of your troubles faster." Camilla said as she looked away from Bernard, rolling her eyes. _"If this doesn't work, I am going to wring that little bastard chickens neck."_ She thought with annoyance.

'"Sweat?" Oh, I have heard of that! It's like one of those old at-home remedies, right?" Bernard said with interest as Camilla turned her attention back towards him, a happy look forming on her face as she realized what she said worked.

"Er- Yes! Exactly! You just need to sweat a bit and you should be healed right quick!" Camilla said gleefully. _"I've got to thank that crow_ later." She thought with joy.

"Okay, so how do we go about making me sweat a little? Hot rocks? Warm blankets?" Bernard said as he thought about ways to warm himself up to sweat.

"...I have an idea." Camilla said, catching Bernards attention as she looked into his eyes.

"...You- you do?" Bernard said as he noticed Camilla was staring deeply at him. As she looked, she proceeded to take her hands and remove the tie around her hair that was holding up her ponytail, letting loose her hair and letting it flutter down her backside. Upon seeing her do this, Bernard blushed slightly in response, aroused.

"You need to sweat... Maybe I can help with that." Camilla said as she approached Bernard on the bed on all fours.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Bernard exclaimed as he put his hands up. "Why are you- hmp!" Bernard continued until he was cut off by Camilla placing her finger on his lips.

"Keep still and be quiet..." Camilla said with half closed eyes and a serious tone. "All you have to do is leave everything to me... Okay?" She continued.

"Uhm!?" Bernard muttered in surprise. _"What the hell is going on here!?"_ He thought in shock.

Moving around and adjusting herself, Camilla lightly pushed down Bernard and laid his head against the pillow as she loomed over him, straddling his waistline. Looking up at her, Bernards face begun to lit up red like a cherry tomato as he stared at Camilla, who was giving him a comforting look. Placing her right hand on the center of his chest, Camilla traced her left hands index finger along Bernards right arm, a ticklish sensation running up his arm.

"Whahia!" Bernard stuttered as he felt Camilla lightly tickle him. Grabbing his right wrist, Bernard looked and saw Camilla moved his open right hand to her left breast. As his fingers sunk into her softness, he could feel her heartbeat through his hand. _"Holy crap! Boob! That's definitely a boob in my hand! What the hell is she doing!?"_ Bernard thought as he was getting more and more turned on by Camillas actions.

"You can feel it right?" Camilla said as Bernard looked at her with his face red. "You're starting to sweat... The heat from my body against yours? It's nice... and warm..." She continued to say comforting words.

"It's! Definitely! Warm!" Bernard said haphazardly and in shock but he still wasn't sweating.

"But you still aren't sweating... Maybe this will help." Camilla said as she let go of his hand that was on her breast and moved her hands onto his shoulders. _"Holy crap, I am good at this!" _Camilla thought, impressed with herself by her attempt at seduction.

As he felt her hands on his shoulders, Bernard continued to stare at her as she continued to look at him softly as she started to bend closer to him. Closing her eyes and puckering her lips, Camilla made a face that looked like she was attempting to initiate a kiss as she got closer.

_"Her- her mouth! She is going to kiss me?! Forget sweating, I feel like I am going to have a heart attack at this rate!" _Bernard thought as he moved his left hand against where his heart was and just looked at Camilla slowly getting closer to lock lips with him as he closed his eyes tightly in anticipation.

"Glaugh!" The sound of coughing and gagging interrupted Bernards train of thought as he slowly opened one of his eyes and noticed a peculiar sight: Camilla was now off of him and had started violently coughing off the side of the bed.

"Uhhh… Camilla?" Bernard said as he sat up and looked at Camilla gagging.

"Ugh... It's- it's nothing. Let's just continue." Camilla said as she wiped her mouth and moved back closer to Bernard, putting her hands on his shoulders once again. Before anything could happened however, Bernard noticed Camillas mouth started to look like her cheeks were swelling up, as if something was inside her mouth as she turned away again and coughing once again.

"Hey, whoa. You alright?" Bernard said worriedly. "Maybe... we should stop if you are gonna keep heaving like that." He said as Camilla twisted her head back to look at him with an aggravated look.

"Are you saying after all that, you are fighting me now?!" Camilla shouted angrily as she moved back towards Bernard as a drop of sweat started to come off her face as she breathed heavily.

_"She is sweating more than I am supposed to be..."_ Bernard thought as she put her hands on his shoulders once more. Moving closer, Camilla placed her mouth against Bernard, finally managing to kiss him.

Bernards eyes widened as the feeling of Camillas mouth against his caused him to become more and more aroused until he opened his mouth slightly in the midst of the kiss and Camilla proceeded to open her mouth to increase the intimacy of their "making out." Suddenly, whatever romantic air that was between the two of them was ruined as Bernard felt something enter his mouth from Camillas mouth. Something that wasn't her tongue.

_"What the hell is... Blargh!"_ Bernards eyes widened as he looked at Camilla and noticed the sickly expression on her face as he begun to taste a disgusting chum-like taste enter his mouth, filling his cheeks as he realized quickly that Camilla was vomiting into his mouth.

Separating from eachother, Camilla and Bernard moved to opposite sides of the bed and proceeded to heavily vomit large amounts of foul-smelling puke onto the floor. Looking through the door to the room was Corvus as he watched the two of them puke their brains out.

_"...Wasn't what I was expecting but still funny. Hehe." _Corvus thought jokingly as he enjoyed the humorous sight of the two puking.

Several minutes later, the medicine man came back to check on Bernard and found Camilla and him vomiting. Setting up another bed and then getting Camilla to lay on it, the medicine man cleaned up the gross pile of slop all over the floor and gave Camilla some medicine.

"Okay, it would seem your body was rejecting the flying fish you had ingested and it took awhile to sift through you before you started to get sick, based on how much you ate." The medicine man said. "You both should stay overnight to recover... And no cuddling, just in case." The medicine man said as he left the room. As he left, Corvus stood on the bed frame of Bernards bed as Bernard and Camilla looked up at the ceiling with disgruntled looks.

"So, I plan on going back to the beach to get more fish, want some?" Corvus said with a chuckle as Camilla and Bernard sat up to look angrily at the crow.

'"Shut up!"' Bernard and Camilla screamed in unison._ '"I'm never eating fish again!"'_ They both thought in unison as they fell back and laid their heads against their pillows in pain.

* * *

**The beach is a fun place every once in awhile but having a magic gem stone in your chest doesn't exactly make for the perfect "beach bod." With Bernards official punishment decided, he is now forced to be an assistant to all the members of the guild on their job requests, his pets included. And after ingesting one of the worst and most inedible creatures in the kingdom of Fiore, he got some quality time with Camilla, that was ruined once again by the fish... Ugh... But what will happen next now that he is forced to be a regular participant in the Psycho Circus guilds jobs? Only time will tell... Or the chapter, of course. See you next time!**

**(Author's note: Come on, it was kinda funny to write what happened between Camilla and Bernard, right? Lol. Also this is the last of what I have internally been calling the "transitional" chapters. The chapter with Bernards past revealed, the chapter with the payroll and donuts and this chapter are the last chapters before we get into the next story arc... And spoiler alert: the next of Bernards additions to his menagerie.)**


	22. Chapter 22

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tent House, 7:12 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Since his reinstatement back into the Psycho Circus guild, it has been four days since Bernard first was issued his punishment of him, begrudgingly, returning to the guild as a member, but now added to his problems was the fact that he was now an active participant in the guilds job requests. After several missions, his beastly allies included, Bernard just wanted to relax and enjoy the incredibly soft bed he laid on early in the morning.

"Haaaa…" Bernard yawned as he laid back on the pillow of the bed he was laying on, dressed in white shorts and a black t-shirt. Rubbing his eyes, he slowly opened them and looked up towards the ceiling of the tent house. "Ugh... Another day of hard obnoxious labor..." He muttered out loud to himself.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad." Said a female voice coming from the side as Bernard turned his head. Laying with Bernard was Camilla, dressed in only a large brown tank top that covered over her underwear, as she laid on a pillow of her own.

"...Remind me again, why I am sleeping with you in your bed?" Bernard said as he looked at Camilla, scratching her head as she looked up at the ceiling.

"Because you kept coming into my bed every night since you started to sleepwalk into my bed so it's obvious we are not going to see you stop so it's better we just share the mattress." Camilla said as she looked up at the ceiling. _"And it keeps me from needing to drag you every time into my bed just so we can sleep together."_ Camilla thought with a mischievous grin forming on her face.

"Riiight…" Bernard said with slight embarrassment at the possibility of him sleepwalking into his keepers bed. _"And there's that taste in my mouth again..."_ Bernard thought as he felt a strawberry-like aftertaste on his mouth once more. "Really wish today would be an easy one."

"All of your days are easy ones, dummy. You just can't stop complaining." Camilla said as she turned back towards Bernard.

"Says the woman who puked in my mouth- Gah!" Bernard said casually until he felt his nose get pinched as he looked and saw an angry expression form on Camillas face.

"...I thought we agreed we wouldn't talk about that..." Camilla said with a twitch in her eye as Bernard formed an expression of fear as he looked at her anger.

"Ye-yes ma'am..." Bernard said nervously.

"Good." Camilla said sternly as she sat up with Bernard following suit. "Besides, you shouldn't whine about being involved in real wizard work, it's not a real punishment and you are surrounded by your friends on the job."

"Yeah, yeah, you keep saying that and yet all I have been dealing with is you taking every cent from my pocket and helping everyone in the guild with virtually everything again." Bernard said, complaining as Camilla furrowed her brow at him.

"Besides the chum-fest that was in Akane, you haven't done anything too difficult. It's been mostly easy jobs you have dealt with." Camilla said as she looked at Bernard.

"Yeah... Helping Marlene find some mystical plants for some old sages in a small town down south and then working with Pietro to round up a bunch of weretigers that got onto a farm that some dumb farmer forgot to lock the door to keep his cows from becoming dinner… real "easy" stuff." Bernard continued to complain.

"Seriously, you have no real reason to complain. You have come back alive from all the jobs you have went on with your pets and the other members and it's not like I am going to ask you to come with me on an S-class quest. You're fine." Camilla retorted as she looked at Bernard as he got up from the bed and walked over to a case on the floor that was open and had his clothes in it, pulling out his beanie and placing it on his head.

"Lets see; I have a rock keeping my heartbeat operating, there's an entire guild full of circus performers that are overly reliant on said "rock-heart" guy that wants him to clean the toilets, And on top of that, I have a bunch of monsters living under my skin, exactly how am I "fine?"' Bernard continued listing his current grievances until light particles started to emerge from his chest as Corvus and Vulp had appeared.

"Morning knuckleheads." Corvus said as he flew up and landed on Bernards shoulder as Vulp walked over and sat next to Bernards legs.

"Right back at ya..." Bernard said as he folded his arms.

"Morning honey, was I in your dreams last night? Hehe." Corvus said jokingly as he looked at Camilla, a look of annoyance forming on her face.

"Yes actually, I dreamed of turning you into a soup and serving you to the guild." Camilla said with an angry smile on her face as she looked at the crow.

"Whoa! Don't even think about it babe! Like hell I am letting you treat me like a duck you can feast on!" Corvus shouted back at her.

"I find it funny how you two aren't a couple." Bernard joked as Vulp nodded in agreement.

'"Shut up!"' Corvus and Camilla shouted at Bernard.

"Come on, let's get whatever fresh hell this "not-a-wizard" has in store for himself today." Bernard said as he grabbed a pair of pants and walked behind the changing curtain in the tent house.

_"..."Not-a-wizard" huh?" _Camilla thought with her hand under her chin, thinking.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guild, 11:53 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

After Bernard and Camilla had awakened from their sleep and got dressed, they had proceeded to walk over to the big top guild hall of Psycho Circus and started to clean up the place, with Camilla setting up behind the bar and Bernard busting the tables and sweeping the floors as his Celestial Spirit allies casually watched the two work. During that time, other members of the guild started to arrive and begin their days, either working by taking jobs or relaxing in the guild hall, getting drunk.

"Man oh man!" Anatoli remarked next to the bar as he sat cross-legged on his googly-eyed ball. "Feels like a good day to me!" He said towards the other nearby members of the guild who were at the bar.

"What makes you say that?" Marlene said with a raised eyebrow as she looked at Anatoli as she sat next to Pietro with Camilla bartending in front of them, cleaning glasses.

"Beats me, just feels like one of those days. The winds told me so!" Anatoli said as he stood up as he dramatically posed on his ball, to the annoyance of his fellow guildmates.

"I think his version of a "good day" is just him sleeping all day after downing all the gin in the guildhall." Camilla joked as she looked at Marlene and Pietro who were smirking in response.

"No, it's not!" Anatoli shouted. "...Sometimes it's whiskey..." He embarrassingly replied as he scratched the back of his head, prompting Pietro, Camilla and Marlene to start to chuckle.

"Hey Camilla." Marlene spoke up, catching Camillas attention.

"What?" Camilla replied.

"As much fun as joking about Anatoli being stupid is, I'm kinda curious as to where Bernard is." Marlene asked out of interest as Camilla bit her lip in response as she stopped shining a glass with a cloth.

"I agree, I figured he'd be right here at the bar drinking with us." Anatoli said as he sat back down on his ball.

"...Turn around." Camilla said with an annoyed tone as she looked behind Marlene with Marlene and Anatoli turning to see where she was looking. As they looked on with concern, Marlene and Anatoli were perplexed by an unusual sight.

Sitting at a table in the guildhall was Bernard, by himself, with his head face down on the table and giving off a relatively unapproachable aura that made him appear as if he wanted no one to bother him. Sitting around him was Corvus and Vulp, casually laying down on the table and looking at Bernard as they just looked confused at his volatile state.

"...Is there any reason he looks like a ticking time bomb?" Marlene said as she spun back around towards Camilla.

"Holy crap, he looks like he wants to die..." Anatoli said as he continued to look at Bernard.

"...He just won't stop with this stupid "sad-sack" routine!" Camilla said as she shook her head and went back to cleaning glasses. "Every day since the show, if he hasn't been out on a job after helping clean up the place with me in the morning, he just sits there acting like an ass!" Camilla said as she put down the glass and looks at the trio of wizards.

"Well, to be fair, he's the only guy who doesn't get paid for wizard work around here." Marlene said, playing devil's advocate for Bernard.

"Oh yeah, how's the money you have been taking from the splits he was supposed to be given?" Anatoli said with interest. "Mine included..." He continued with aggravation.

"It's going nowhere..." Camilla said as she continued to shake her head.

"What do you mean "nowhere?"' Marlene questioned.

"I know the punishment is that he isn't allowed a cent from wizard jobs but the moment he realizes how stupid he is being and starts acting like he is one of us again, I'll give him every cent of what he has earned but that's not going to be happening anytime soon if he just keeps acting like... that." Camilla explained as she pointed at the negative energy secreting Bernard, still having his head facedown on the table.

"When I was on the mission with him to collect those mushrooms the other day, he wasn't so melancholy." Marlene said as she took a swig of her drink.

"He was probably distracted and didn't think too hard about being a member of Psycho Circus when you guys were working." Camilla said as she theorized. "How about when you were with him, Pietro?" Camilla said as she turned towards Pietro who was sipping a mixed cocktail out of a small glass with his eyes closed. "Pietro?" She said with confusion.

"I'm surprised he is so depressed about all of this. He should be happy no one is angry with him for leaving anymore." Anatoli said with confusion.

"I don't think that's the point." Marlene spoke up as she looked back towards Bernard. "I just don't think he feels like he belongs here."

_"She's not wrong..."_ Camilla thought as she remembered when she eavesdropped on him talking with the Celestial Spirits in the bathroom.

"Maybe if we sat with him, show him that everything is alright, it'll be fine." Anatoli remarked as he grabbed a drink from off the bar and proceeded to roll on his ball over towards Bernard with Marlene following suit as Camilla looked with a raised eyebrow towards Pietro.

"Hey, Bernard." Marlene said casually as she and Anatoli held glasses in their hands. "Room for two more?" She asked earnestly.

"Probably not a good idea..." Corvus stated to the two wizards as Vulp nodded in agreement with the crow.

"Oh come on, he can't be that unapproachable right now- Eep!" Anatoli said before turning his eyes towards Bernard as he and Marlene were startled by the look they were given by Bernard.

Wide-eyed, angry and twitching, Bernard looked at his "comrades" with eyes full of agitation and annoyance as he twisted his head slightly on the table to look at them. Gritting and grinding his teeth loudly, Bernard continued to stare at Anatoli and Marlene as they slowly backed away from him until he opened his mouth to speak.

"Go... Away..." Bernard said menacingly to his "friends" as they proceeded to quickly go back towards the bar area as Camilla looked at them with a look that lacked surprise.

"So much for "showing him that everything is alright."' Camilla retorted with her arms folded as Marlene and Anatoli sat on the bar stools.

"...No kidding..." Marlene said with fear in her tone as she refused to look back towards Bernards angry glare towards her and the others.

"Oh come on!" Anatoli shouted as he banged his fists on the table, catching Camilla and Marlenes attention. "All this time away, we finally find him and he comes back with magical monsters at his disposal and I thought we'd all finally go on missions together like we dreamed about when we were kids! But now, our "pack leader" from when we were kids playing in the woods is acting like an uncooperative douchebag!" Anatoli complained.

"Don't start complaining, I have heard too many complaints the past couple of days at my place." Camilla said as she attempted to calm down Anatoli.

"The magic fox and the bird he is with always listens to what he tells them and he has that giant creepy liquid thing, its not like he is weak in comparison to anyone here like he was after he first got the pacemaker." Marlene said as she wondered about a way to get Bernard to stop being so depressing.

"Well I can answer that." Camilla said as she was fixing another drink for Pietro, who was still sitting quietly at the bar.

"Lay it on us." Anatoli remarked.

"He doesn't view himself as a "wizard."' Camilla stated to the confusion of Marlene and Anatoli.

"What?" Anatoli replied.

"How does he not view himself as a wizard? He's a guildmember, he has those magical beasts with him, he has magical energy inside of him..." Marlene said as she listed reasons.

"It's not so simple to him..." Camilla said. "Think about it, we were all training to become wizards when we were kids around the time he had his accident, he never got to be "like" us so the idea is practically engrained into him that he isn't one of us." She said with annoyance as she continued to look at Bernard as she finished Pietros drink and poured it into his glass.

"That's stupid..." Anatoli retorted in a tone of frustration. "He has magic, he's a member of our guild, he's even the guild masters son of all things, he shouldn't be acting like that! What he should be doing is sitting with us, knocking back some booze, feeling one of you two up and enjoying himself!" He said, giving his reasons.

"...I'm sorry, did you say "feeling one of us up?"' Marlene said, weirded out by Anatoli odd statement.

"Funny things happen when people are drunk, picture Bernard doing something stupid while drunk, it'd be funny and I know one of you two would love to see it!" Anatoli argued as Camilla thought for a minute.

_"Wouldn't be alright if he felt me up in public... But I'd probably only complain for half a second." _Camilla thought, mildly enjoying the notion of Bernard touching her, despite the chances being relatively slim in the near future. "Look, as much as everyone here would love to see Bernard loosen up, it's obvious it's not going to be soon unless someone does something to get him to stop being a sourpuss." Camilla said as she looked at Anatoli and Marlene.

"All I could think of is taking him on more jobs with us." Anatoli said with his arms crossed as he sat on his ball.

"Doubt that's gonna work until he gets some cash in his pocket." Marlene said as she looked at Camilla.

"And like I said, I am not going to give anything to him until he finally admits he is one of us and lightens up..." Camilla said with a somewhat regretful tone as she continued to clean glasses.

"Hmmmm…" Pietro mumbled as finished his drink and catching the groups attention.

"The large man speaks?!" Anatoli joked as he and the girls noticed Pietro finally made sound.

"Pietro, what's up? You are usually more of the "insight" guy in situations like this." Marlene said as she looked at Pietro being quiet with his eyes closed.

Without speaking up, Pietro proceeded to stand up from the barstool and turned around towards the direction of Bernard and the Celestial Spirits at the table he is sitting at. Walking over to him casually, Camilla, Marlene and Anatoli watched on as Pietro looked at the young man's negative expression as Bernard noticed Pietro approaching and started to give the same nasty look he gave the other members towards the large mustachioed strong man.

"Go... Away..." Bernard said with a vicious snarling look towards Pietro as Corvus and Vulp just looked at Bernard with unenthusiastic expressions.

"Hey, no offense if you want to try and get close to him but I dont think you are gonna have much luck." Corvus said as he looked at Pietro but Pietro seemed to just ignore what the crow said to him. Standing over the seated Bernard, Pietro continued to stare at Bernard who was still looking at him with the same volatile look.

"Enough." Pietro said. "...The "cruel and dark eyed" look isn't going to work too well with me." He said as Bernards look started to change, his angry glares and face of negativity started to shift into a plain expression of sheer disgruntlement.

"What do you want?" Bernard said as he sighed.

"I spoke to Master Barnum. He gave me permission to take you on another job of my choosing." Pietro said as he looked at Bernard.

"Greeaaatt…" Bernard said unenthusiastically. "You hogging me up so the other members of the guild don't get their turn of making me be their mule?" He said with a negatively sarcastic tone.

"See you tomorrow for the job. Pack supplies by the way, the job I have in mind is going to be a bit of a trip." Pietro said as he turned and walked away.

'"A trip?"' Corvus said with intrigue as he looked at Bernard, who looked back at the crow with a raised eyebrow, unsure of what to expect.

As Pietro walked back towards the bar, interest and questions were starting to pile up within Camilla, Marlene and Anatoli as they didn't understand what the large older gentleman just said to Bernard and came back.

"What did you say?" Marlene said with intrigue.

"Bernard is going on a job tomorrow." Pietro said calmly as he sat back down. "Camilla, another martini, if you please." He said to the bartending S-class wizard as she started to fix a drink.

"What's the job?" Anatoli said curiously.

"You'll see about it tomorrow." Pietro said as he took a sip of his glass. "Ahhh… Oh, Camilla, one other thing." He spoke up, catching Camillas attention.

"Yes?" Camilla said with a raised eyebrow.

"Think you can do me a favor and get me some of the parchment that people use for the job requests. And another thing..." Pietro said as he motioned for Camilla to come closer. As she bent forward over the bar, Pietro whispered in her ear as her eyes widened in surprise as she continued to listen.

"Are... Are you serious? Are you sure about this?" Camilla said with concerned eyes as Anatoli and Marlene looked in confusion.

"Trust me on this. I think this will work." Pietro said in a reassuring tone.

"...Well... Alright then." Camilla said with a nod.

"Is someone going to tell us what's going on!?" Anatoli shouted in his confusion.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tent House, 8:01 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

The next day, Bernard woke up from his slumber in the relatively same way as the previous; next to Camilla and with a bitter attitude.

"Morning." Camilla said casually as she looked at him as they both laid on the bed.

"...Hey." Bernard said disgruntled.

_"Still acting like a knob..."_ Camilla thought as her eyebrow twitched at his negativity. "Soooo... Got that job with Pietro today right?" She said as she looked at Bernard who proceeded to look up at the ceiling annoyed.

"...Old man wouldn't even tell me what it's about." Bernard complained as he continued to stare at the ceiling.

"I can probably tell you what it is." Camilla said as she sat up from the bed.

"Lay it on me." Bernard said as he sat up.

"Whats the "magic word?"' Camilla said as she squinted at him, expecting a polite answer.

"...Can you please tell me what the job is...?" Bernard said in a polite manner, begrudgingly.

"Wasn't so hard now, was it?" Camilla said with a smirk as she saw Bernards annoyance splattered all over his face.

"Ok fine, what is it now?" Bernard pestered.

"First." Camilla said as she started to stand up and walked over to her dresser to grab her clothes. "Go get your backpack ready to start packing for the job because its going to take you about four days." She said as she looked at his wide-eyed and confused expression.

"F-four days?!" Bernard said with surprise.

"Yes... I should start packing too. Anatoli, Marlene and Pietro should be meeting us a little later." Camilla said as she looked at her clothes, curious as to what to wear.

"Why are they coming!?" Bernard shouted with surprise as he stood up from the bed.

"They could be helpful to what Pietro wants you to do. And I need to come too because the job is a tough one." Camilla said as she picked up a piece of job request parchment off the top of her dresser, walking over to Bernard to give him the paper. "Now, excuse me while I go get ready because I am coming along too. You need an S-class wizard in the group to do an S-class quest." She said casually.

As he takes the paper from her hands, he reads it and spots a suspicious large red "S" symbol on the paper. His mouth now agape in shock, Bernard realizes the serious nature of the quest that Pietro has chosen for him to do as Camilla walked behind the curtain.

"...What?!" Bernard screamed in confusion as he looked at Camillas silhouette stripping behind the changing curtain in the tent house.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Path along Nereid Lake, 12:13 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Travelling down a path along the side of Nereid Lake, the river that flows through the town of Hemlock, the members of Psycho Circus casually were walking towards the destination of their job request. As the group of Camilla, Pietro, Marlene and Anatoli walked along with smiles on their faces. Contrasting them, however, was their fifth member, Bernard, with his Celestial Spirit companions of Corvus and Vulp alongside him, who walked behind them by several feet with the same annoyed expression he has had for the past few days.

"...Can't believe this..." Bernard said disgruntled.

"Are you seriously going to complain through this job too?" Corvus said as he flew next to Bernard.

"How are you expecting me to not complain? It's the fifth day I've been forced to do this "punishment free labor" crap and out of nowhere, I am going on an S-class quest!" Bernard said with an angry tone.

"What's this job anyway?" Corvus wondered as Bernard reached into his pocket and pulled out the job request flier.

"Says here; "Investigate the suspicious happenings at the small island at the end of Nereid Lake. Reward money: 9,700,000 Jewels. Requester: anonymous." An S-class quest typically goes for this high in price and I don't get a single cent!" Bernard complained towards his beastly allies.

"Jeez, maybe I should ask for a cut of that pie. Hehe." Corvus joked as Bernard glared at him with annoyance.

"...Still whining..." Anatoli said as he looked back at Bernard with Marlene, making a look of concern as well.

"I can't believe this is the first mission we get to go on together and he is being like this..." Marlene whispered.

"No kidding... Hey, Camilla, Pietro. What is this job again? You still haven't told us." Anatoli said, speaking up behind them as they both walked in front of the others.

"You'll see soon enough." Camilla said as she walked next to Pietro, not looking back. "...You sure about this?" Camilla whispered towards Pietro.

"You remember to get into contact with that friend of yours?" Pietro said, ignoring what she said slightly.

"Yes, I got to talking with my one friend who owes me a favor who knows the Writing Magic. But like I said, are you sure?" Camilla said with concern. "We spent all this time finding him and now we are doing this, it's just going to piss him off to a point of no return." She said worriedly.

"...I think this is what he needs." Pietro said calmly as he looked towards Camilla, a look of unrest on her face as Pietro and her stopped walking with Anatoli and Marlene and then Bernard and the Celestial Spirits following suit.

"Here we are..." Anatoli said as he looked ahead.

In front of the group was a small stone bridge over a portion of the river that connected from the mainland to a small island of giant rocks and trees that was in the center of the river. Looking at it with a raised eyebrow, Bernard looked on at the island with a look of familiarity as he looked at the others.

"Remember this place?" Bernard said as the others looked at him.

"Yup." Marlene said casually.

"The old playground." Anatoli said aloud as he looked at all the trees.

'"Playground?"' Corvus said with interest as Vulp looked up at Bernard with similar intrigue.

"This small island was where we used to play as kids, we would go in the woods and mess around, play "pretend," you know, stuff kids do." Bernard explained.

"And based on this flier, somethings wrong with it." Pietro said as he held up the S-class flier as he looked at Camilla, giving her a minor nudge.

"Okay... Bernard." Camilla said, catching Bernards attention. "You take point..." She said as she looked ahead at the island.

"Me? Why?" Bernard questioned.

"Your fox friend has a good nose, right? Figured you could ask him to sniff out any odd scents." Camilla said as she motioned for Bernard to cross the bridge.

"Ugh... Fine." Bernard said as he turned towards Vulp. "Vulp, sniff the ground and see if you smell anything suspicious around here." He requested as Vulp nodded in response.

Sniffing along the ground, Vulp casually walked forward in an effort to find anything along the rock bridge as Bernard followed him from closely behind with Corvus following next to Bernard.

"Guess we better move in too." Marlene said as Anatoli nodded in response as they started to move forward.

As they started to move forward, Camilla suddenly got in front of them to prevent them from getting any closer to Bernard as Pietro put his hands on their shoulders.

"We must be going." Pietro replied as he grabbed Anatoli and Marlene and pulled them away from the bridge. As he pulled, Camilla turned towards Bernard and noticed he hadn't yet spotted Pietro pulling the others away. Waving her hands up, Camillas magic started to radiate from her body as a series of cursive letters begun to form on the ground around the bridge and along the water around the island as Bernard, Vulp and Corvus set their feet on the land.

"Whoa! What the?!" Bernard screamed as he, Vulp and Corvus looked up and noticed various panels started to form around the island as they kept looking around and spotting clear walls starting to form a dome-like structure around the land and water. Looking back towards the bridge, the trio of Corvus, Bernard and Vulp looked and saw no one standing there.

"...Camilla?! Pietro?! Hello!" Bernard said as he rushed towards the wall on the bridge, placing his hands on the panel as he looked around and noticed no ones presence.

"Where the heck are they?!" Corvus shouted as he and Vulp approached Bernard as he looked through the panel. "Huh? Hey, kid, what's that by your feet?" The crow exclaimed as he got Bernard to look down and noticed a piece of paper on the ground.

Picking it up from the ground, Bernard opened up the paper and looked over the paper as his eyes widened.

"What's it say?" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked on with concern.

"...To simplify things... We are going to be camping for a few days... And I don't think this is a job..." Bernard said with a twitch in his eyes as he flipped the paper over and revealed to the Celestial Spirits the contents of the paper, written in big bold letters: "Time to calm down."

* * *

**Back to sulking, aren't we Bernard? Several days of working for Psycho Circus once again hasn't given Bernard a positive attitude as his friends and comrades grow further and further concerned and annoyed by his negative attitude but it should be alright, Bernards going on an S-class quest with Camilla, Anatoli, Marlene and Pietro!... Or so he thought. A barrier has been erected around the small island at the end of Nereid Lake and inside it is Bernard, Corvus and Vulp for a couple of days by themselves. What could be the outcome of such actions? What will Anatoli and Marlene think of Pietros plan. Only one way to find out; come back for more, next time on Menagerie! **


	23. Chapter 23

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guild, 2:10 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Okay... Let me get this straight." Anatoli said as he rolled on his ball, following behind his fellow guildmembers with a confused look on his face as they entered the guildhall.

The group of Anatoli, Marlene, Pietro and Camilla had just returned home but were now missing one specific member of their team that they had left behind in a certain location. Pietro sported a calm expression as he walked in front of the group while Camilla made a face full of discomfort as she looked at the large man as they all walked in with Marlene and Anatoli sporting expressions of pure confusion.

"So... There was no S-class quest... Or reward..." Anatoli said as the group stopped at a table and sat down on it.

"Nope..." Camilla said with a look of discomfort, not completely happy with the situation.

"And we were brought along in order to make this whole charade thing work to get Bernard and his pets to think it was a job request?" Marlene said with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh huh..." Pietro said with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. As he answered, Camilla begun to glare at the large mustachioed man with a look of scepticism.

"And this was some big plan of Pietros to lock Bernard up on that island with his beasts so he could calm down?" Marlene said as she continued to try and piece together the whole story.

"Worst. Plan. Ever." Camilla said slowly as she looked at Pietro with a dissatisfied look on her face, obviously unhappy with what has transpired.

"Be that as it may, it had to be done... And the outcome will be beneficial for him and us all." Pietro said as he continued to sit with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.

"Look, if this was a form of prank, you could have just said something to me, I could have rigged up something more elaborate than "locking him on an island at the end of the lake."' Anatoli said as he scratched his face as Pietro shook his head to signify a negative response.

"This is no prank, Anatoli." Pietro said as he opened his eyes and looked at Marlene and Anatoli. "This is important business."

"What was that barrier you put up back there, Camilla?" Marlene said as she looked at Camilla.

"A friend of mine who owed me a favor from a prior job in town knew Writing Magic so he helped rig up one of my spells to cover out that small patch of land with an enchantment and keep it there for roughly four days without me needing to dispel it..." Camilla said as she turned her head back towards Pietro.

"He is going to be mad..." Anatoli said as he put his hands on his head, unsure of how Bernard will be when he gets out.

"If one of us doesn't keep watch over that place when the barrier goes down, he might run for the hills and we might never see him again!" Marlene said as her eyes widened, fearing the possibilities. As she finished speaking, Camilla slammed her hands against the table and stood up with an angry expression.

"That's exactly what I said!" Camilla exclaimed loudly as she looked at Pietro. "This plan was a horrible idea from the start! We were already trying to make him not feel like he was imprisoned here at the guild and now we locked him up on a island! He is going to come back even worse than when he started!" She shouted next to the silent strongman.

"No..." Pietro said calmly as the others looked at him with surprise by his silent and nonchalant attitude. "Bernard and his pets are left on that island but he isn't staying there for nothing." He said as he looked around at the other three wizards.

"What possible reason could there be that he stays alone on that island?" Anatoli questioned.

"We haven't been to that island in close to two decades." Marlene said as she tried to remember what the island was like when they were kids.

"I'm aware." Pietro said as he looked at the group. "But that island is exactly where he needs to be and what is there is exactly what he needs to help him calm down." He explained as Camilla still looked at him with a look of unsureness.

"If you wanted him to go camping, then maybe you could have told us that and we wouldn't be trying to interrogate you about what's going on in your head..." Camilla said as she continued to glare.

"I wouldn't have minded going camping with Bernard. Back in the day when we were younger, we used to have fishing contests against eachother, remember?" Anatoli said as he nudged Marlene.

"Yes, and I also remember Bernard always catching more fish than you." Marlene joked to Anatolis chagrin.

"Bigger ones too." Camilla said, joining in.

"Hey! You two still ate the fish I caught!" Anatoli said as the girls begun to giggle at his reactions.

_"Sorry, young ones. But I can't tell you the reason why just yet... Not until Bernard succeeds in what he needs to do_ _there."_ Pietro thought as he looked at the exit to the guild, deep in thought.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 2:43 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Staring into the lake was Corvus and Vulp, patiently looking out at the water as they sat around on the edges of the small island on Nereid Lake. Looking around at the barrier around the island, they continued to wait.

"Been a bit. Think he's alright?" Corvus said as he turned his head and looked at Vulp, who merely shrugged in response. "Fifth time he has gone under..." The crow said as he looked in the water as he noticed bubbles started to appear, coming up from the lake.

As the bubbles started to increase, out from the water popped out Bernard, soaked from being submerged as begun to take in oxygen as he started to walk out of the lake and back to dry land, sitting in-between the Celestial Spirits as he took off his beanie and wringed it to get rid of the water.

"Any luck?" Corvus asked as he and Vulp watched him wring his hat.

"For the fifth time... Nope..." Bernard said with disappointment in his tone.

"So the barrier fully encompasses the bottom of the lake too- Hey!" Corvus said as he looked up towards the sky until Bernard grabbed one of Corvus' wings and started to use his wing like a towel. "I ain't a towel!" Corvus exclaimed angrily as he pulled away his wing.

"Sorry..." Bernard said with a depressed and angry tone.

"...Hey, don't be so glum." Corvus said with a concerned look as he and Vulp, with a similar expression, looked at the tired expression on the beanie-sporting young mans face.

'"Time to calm down."' Bernard said as he pulled out the paper that was left behind by Pietro from his pockets.

"See, that attitude you had at the guild is the reason why this happened." Corvus tried to explain as Bernard crumbled the paper into a ball and threw it into the lake.

"Oh? And why shouldn't I be angry or annoyed by this whole situation?" Bernard said as he looked at Corvus, the agitation clearly shown on his face.

"How long are you going to keep complaining about this?" Corvus said with a disgruntled look as he looked at Bernard. "The only reason we are here and locked up like this on this patch of land is because you couldn't be bothered to stop being a jerk to your own friends." He explained as Vulp took his tail and started to wipe down Bernard to help him dry up.

"You just dont get it..." Bernard said as he turned away from Corvus as Vulp finished wiping him with his tail. As Vulp stopped, Bernard put his hand on his lower belly as a growling noise was made by his stomach. "I am hungry..." Bernard said as he stood up and walked away from the Celestial Spirits towards the woods and near a tree where his backpack was.

"Don't you ignore me! We already have been through this crap when we first showed up at Psycho Circus! The same crap that nearly got us killed by the puppet guy!" Corvus shouted as he and Vulp looked at Bernard, who stopped moving. "Refusing to talk to us, being angry and distant, that's all you want to do! It's not fair for us or your friends or anyone in general!" The crow exclaimed angrily as Bernard turned around to look at them.

_"...Damn it..."_ Bernard thought as he looked at them. _"I'm doing it again..."_ He continued to think as he bit down on his lip in an effort to try and calm down as he scratched his head. "...You guys hungry?" Bernard said as he looked at them as Corvus looked at him with a disgruntled look as Vulp raised an eyebrow.

"...Dodging the question?" Corvus asked with an angry expression.

"No..." Bernard said as he looked at the Celestial Spirits, to their surprise. "If we are talking, I want to do it while I eat." He said as he picked up his backpack and put it on his back as he motioned for them to follow him.

"You promise to talk to us from now on?" Corvus said as he flew over to Bernard and landed on his shoulder. "You have to swear on it." The crow said with serious eyes as he looked at Bernard as Vulp moved closer to Bernards legs.

"Yeah, okay fine..." Bernard said with a predominantly more calmer tone than he was expressing prior.

After going into the forest, several hours had passed by as the sun went down over the island and the night had begun. Spending the last couple of hours setting up a campsite, Bernard set up a small tent under a tree within an area of the woods of the island with a small camp fire with two chopped down logs around it that Vulp brought down to use as seating for the group.

"Not a bad setup." Corvus said as he sat on one of the logs with Vulp next to him in front of the fire as Bernard walked over from another location. "How's the fishing?" The crow wondered as he spoke to Bernard as he sat down on the other log.

"The three lines are set up thanks to some of the sticks I found and the twine I brought in my backpack. By the way, thanks for helping me get these logs chopped down. Vulp." Bernard said as Vulp perked up from hearing Bernard compliment him.

After hearing his compliment, Vulp proceeded to stand up and jump off the log he was on with Corvus to move over to the one that Bernard was on, laying down across Bernards lap as usual in a comfortable manner. As he laid down on Bernards lower half, Vulp took his large fox tail and proceeded to wrap it slowly around the small of Bernards back, gently rubbing the beanie-sporting young man to his surprise.

"Jeez, Vulp, stop it with the clinginess." Bernard said with an embarrassed smile as he continued to feel Vulps tail gently rub his backside comfortably, almost as if to massage him.

"Hehe, he likes you." Corvus said with a chuckle as he watched the two on the other side of the camp fire.

"I kinda figured given the time we have spent together." Bernard said as he lifted Vulp off his lap and placed him on his side as Bernard stood up and walked over to his backpack, pulling out three cans of beans for the each of them.

"Three cans of food, three lines for the fish, I'm surprised you are treating us so well after the last few days of you acting like a sour lemon." Corvus said as he took one of the cans from Bernards hands as he passed one of them to Vulp as the trio opened up the cans.

"Like I said, it's not easy for me given the situation I am in. Being bitter and angry is the only way I can feel given how things are." Bernard said as he sat next to Vulp on the log.

As the trio opened their cans, they each proceeded to take small amounts of beans out of their individual food sources and put them in their mouths, faces of discomfort appearing on their faces as they ate the cold beans.

"Aren't these supposed to be heated...?" Corvus replied as his eyes twitched with cold beans in his mouth.

"Cans said they could be eaten cold... But they still taste like crap while cold..." Bernard said with a mouth full of beans as Vulp cringed with the beans in his mouth. _"Last time I steal from Camillas pantry... Guh, these are gross." _He thought as the beans tasted awful as they all slowly tried to swallow them down their throats.

"Blergh… From that pastry shop to this, you really should have been nicer to your guildmates." Corvus said as he swallowed his beans as Bernard looked at him.

"I'm not their guildmate." Bernard said with a nonchalant attitude.

"I know, you're their "prisoner." I get it but it doesn't change the fact they want to spend time with you. Jobs or no jobs." Corvus said as he and Bernard locked eyes. "The hot brunette especially." He continued as Bernard blushed as he mentioned Camilla.

"It's not easy for me, you know…" Bernard said as he took off his beanie and scratched his head before putting it back on.

"And why's that? You pretty much reconciled with everybody already, what's making you so tense?" Corvus asked as Bernards eye started to twitch.

"What are you? My therapist?" Bernard retorted.

'"Beep! Paging "Doctor Corvus!" You are needed in the woods for the guy with the attitude that's as bad as his heart! Beep!"' Corvus joked as he held his wing up to his beak, pretending to speak into an imaginary P.A. system.

"That wasn't funny!" Bernard exclaimed loudly.

"Jokes aside, what's wrong with getting along with them like you used to?" Corvus questioned as Bernard made a face of discomfort.

"...I'm... Not entirely happy with the outcome..." Bernard said with a tone of discontent.

"Outcome of what?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow as Vulp looked at Bernard at his side as he took a deep breath.

"This punishment... I know why Camilla picked this specific punishment for me." Bernard said as he looked at the fire with an annoyed expression.

"What do you mean?" Corvus wondered.

"She's trying to butter me up, in a sense." Bernard explained. "Make me go on jobs with all the guild members, make me remember all the fun there is with being associated with the guild, give me reasons to stay of my own accord... That kind of thing."

_"Well... I kinda figured that out already." _Corvus thought as he looked at Bernard and remembered what happened back in Akane Beach. "What's wrong with that? It's decent work being a part of a wizards guild and you work for a guild of performers that respect you as their manager."

"It's not like I can't handle the work, especially now that I am not the ringmaster and that crazy guy, Chester, is. I just... Don't feel comfortable being around everyone anymore..." Bernard said with a tone full of borderline shame.

"Ohhhh… I get it..." Corvus said as he caught Bernards attention as Vulp looked at Corvus. "You don't feel comfortable because you feel bad about everyone still treating you the same way as they did before, even after running away... That it?" The crow continued to question until Bernard made an annoyed face towards the bird, a technical sign of a correct answer.

"Besides Chester and Camilla, at first... Everyone's acting like I never left. I'm not happy with that... I abandoned everyone to two years of nothingness in the guild and as soon as I come back, I'm welcomed with open arms... It's just not sitting well with me." Bernard said as he looked at the remains of his can of beans.

"...You're just being dumb." Corvus said as he waved his wing as Bernard looked at the crow. "Good friends look past peoples faults, you put up with monkey boy being a weird prankster and the lizard girls strange appearance and they're putting up with your bossiness and lack of interest in being around them now. They're being good friends until you finally open the curtain." The crow explained.

"What "curtain?"' Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"The "curtain" that's making you feel upset over having people in your life again. Weren't you "hiding" in Hargeon for the past two years before you met me and Vulp?" Corvus said as Bernard nodded to his question. "You weren't "living" in Hargeon after you left the guild, you were hiding from your guilt and the people who made you feel that way."

"...I did a pretty good job at being a coward." Bernard said with a smirk on his face.

"Oh ha ha" Corvus replied sarcastically. "Point is, you don't have to be so alone now. You got me and Vulp and you have the rest of your buddies in the guild. Once this whole punishment thing is over, you can move on from it and start fresh." Corvus said as he put down his can of beans, after finishing them.

"You mean I have you and Vulp until the punishment is over and we get back to finding you a legit Celestial Spirit Wizard to take you guys back to the Celestial Spirit world." Bernard reiterated as Vulp turned his head to look at Bernard and Corvus' eyes widened in sudden recognition.

"R-right..." Corvus said with a bit of hesitation in his tone. _"I keep forgetting..." _The crow thought with an unsure tone. "Oh, I forgot. Your buddies and your girlfriend." Corvus stated as Bernards face became a bright red.

"Wh-what "girlfriend!?" Bernard stammered with embarrassment and surprise as Corvus smirked.

"Oh nothing, just kidding... Hehe." Corvus joked as he looked up at the barrier covered sky.

"...Me and Camilla are not like that..." Bernard said as he looked away from everyone.

"Yeah, yeah, I- wait... How'd you know I was referring to her?" Corvus said until he stopped and noticed Bernard mentioned Camilla.

"...It's..." Bernard stuttered with a red face as Corvus and Vulp looked at him with suspicion.

"Speak..." Corvus said with interest.

"I... Woke up early a night or two ago..." Bernard said with embarrassment.

"Uh-huh?" Corvus muttered.

"I wanted to see what kept making that strawberry flavor in my mouth every night so I slept with one eye open sorta..." Bernard explained as he looked at Corvus. "Next thing I knew... I felt Camilla next to me, after we started sharing the bed, and she pulls me over to her." He said with a red face.

"And then?" Corvus said with a trickle of blood coming out of his nose holes on his beak.

"She pulled me close... Got on top of me... And wouldn't stop "tonguing" me for what felt like ten minutes..." Bernard said with embarrassment as Corvus fell off the log and onto his back.

"Wait! Wait! You and her were making out a couple of nights ago?!" Corvus reiterated as he scrambled to get back up.

"Well... I couldn't tell at the time if she was asleep or awake when it happened..." Bernard said as he scratched his cheek. "...Never would have guessed she likes to wear lip makeup with such a strong aftertaste..." He said as he scratched his head.

"So... Wait, you know now she was kissing you in your sleep all this time?" Corvus questioned.

"...I guess...? Never figured out why I kept sleepwalking into her bed though." Bernard said with uncertainty.

_"Good news, he didn't figure that out yet..."_ Corvus thought as he continued to look at Bernard. "Annnnddd?" Corvus said in wonder.

"What?" Bernard replied.

"...Was it a good kiss or was it bad?" Corvus said with interest as Bernards eyes widened towards the crow.

"I'm not telling you!" Bernard replied. _"It was pretty awesome actually... And I was just happy there wasn't any puke involved this time."_ Bernard secretly thought as he remembered what transpired between him and Camilla a few nights ago.

"I sleep within your heartbeat maker! I want to know how it was!" Corvus shouted with interest.

"It doesn't matter!" Bernard screamed in response.

"Yes it does! I want to know if you and her start "doing the dirty!" I live inside you, that technically makes me her boyfriend too!" Corvus said with a lustful expression.

"I am not her boyfriend! And neither are you!" Bernard shouted angrily in response as Vulp just looked confused at the conversation the two were having. "Besides, I can't be with her in that sense anyway..."

"Why not?" Corvus continued to wonder.

"Let's see: she's financially stable, has a ton of magic power, has a killer body, pretty much the only other "reliable" person in the guild to an extent and is the head of security for an entire performing guild." Bernard explained his comparison.

"Total bombshell if you asked me." Corvus states as Bernard looks at him with an unamused expression.

"And then there's me... A homeless bum with a beanie and a gem in his chest that's keeping himself alive that's home to a pair of spirits from another dimension and a slime demon- Wait... Oh crap, I almost forgot." Bernard thought as he stood up from the log.

"What's up?" Corvus wondered as he and Vulp watched Bernard walk away from the campsite and stood between two trees. As he was standing away from the camp, he pressed on his Lacrima pacemaker a few times and liquid started to secrete out from under his clothes as Formosa begun to take its giant golem-like form, standing motionless. "Why'd you bring that out?" Corvus questioned.

As Corvus and Vulp wondered why Bernard summoned out Formosa, the young man placed his hand against the large leg of the imposing slime giant as Formosa absorbed energy out of Bernard to give it the energy to move. With more and more energy seeping out of Bernard into the slimy goliath, Bernard felt discomfort around his heart as he finished transferring power.

"That should be good." Bernard said as he rubbed his left side chest. "Formosa! If any stray creatures arrive, try and scare them off or attack them." Bernard said as he shouted an order towards the large slime, who was still standing motionless, awaiting further instructions with the energy Bernard fed it.

"You alright?" Corvus wondered as he and Vulp looked at Bernard as he walked back towards the campsite.

"Yeah, thought it might be a good idea to have Formosa be on standby as a guard dog while we all sleep tonight. Erf..." Bernard said as he continued to feel a small dull pain in his chest from the energy from his Lacrima pacemaker being taken out.

_"...He's had this problem the entire time... I might not be the best person to say this but..._" Corvus thought as he spoke up. "You might want to work on that, kid." Corvus said as Vulp looked at Bernard with concern.

"Work on what?" Bernard said as he rubbed the area near his heart.

"Getting more energy to fuel that thing." Corvus said as he looked at Bernard who looked at the crow with a raised eyebrow.

"I highly doubt this is going to be something I can fix. I have no other power in my body because this damn rock is sapping everything my body can muster just to keep me alive, stuff that you two also have been taking out of me for the past month." Bernard said as he stopped rubbing his chest as Vulp and Corvus looked at him with concern.

"Couldn't you just do what other wizards do? Meditate and absorb the energy in the air or something like that?" Corvus said with a slightly optimistic tone.

"I doubt I could do that too given how I've never had any sort of technical training to learn how. Besides, I am not a wizard, remember?" Bernard said as he stood up and walked over to the tent as Corvus and Vulp continued to look at him with concern. "Anyway, I am tired. You guys want to go back inside the rock?" He said as he sat down on the sleeping bag as Corvus and Vulp looked at eachother for a quick second.

"Actually..." Corvus said as he flew over to where Bernard was, landing on Bernards right shoulder as he was still sitting up with Vulp joining them as the fox proceeded to take position on Bernards lap once again. "You can hit the hay, we are going to stay up a little bit and make sure things are safe." The crow said as he looked at Bernard who was looking at Vulp, laying on him in a comforting way.

"Oh? What's up? You guys want some energy too?" Bernard questioned.

"No, it's just... Forget it, get some rest kid." Corvus said as he scratched the back of his head with his wing before getting off of Bernards shoulder as the young man took his hat off and laid back to sleep. As he laid back against his sleeping bag, Vulp and Corvus sat next to his sleeping body as they looked around, guarding Bernards slumber.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 7:47 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

The next day of Bernard and his beastly allies confinement on the island had begun as Corvus and Vulp had begun to rustle and stir on Bernards sleeping bag after they had fallen asleep sometime earlier last night.

"Meegh… Kinda regret choosing to sleep outside..." Corvus said as he looked at Vulp as the fox opened his eyes and looked over towards Bernard.

As the Celestial Spirits turned their heads back, Vulp and Corvus' eyes widened with surprise as they saw no sign of Bernard. Beginning to grow worried, the duo of Corvus and Vulp proceeded to leave the tent and look around for him. As they looked around, the pair of Celestial Spirits noticed Formosa still standing in the same location motionlessly.

"Kid!? Where are you!? Kid?!" Corvus shouted as Vulp begun to sniff around in an attempt to quickly find Bernards whereabouts.

"I'm over here!" Said the disembodied voice of Bernard as Corvus and Vulp quickly rushed to the direction of where he was.

Hurrying past the woods, Corvus and Vulp made it to the lakeside around the edge of the island that was still covered by the barrier dome. Standing in front of them was Bernard who was looking at the three fishing lines he had propped up to catch fish, appearing like he was deep in thought.

"Kid! Oh, thank the stars, we found you!" Corvus said as he flew over to Bernard, perching on his shoulder as Vulp rushed to sit next to the standing young mans leg.

"This is very strange..." Bernard said with concern to himself as Corvus and Vulp looked at him.

"What's up?" Corvus asked.

"I checked the lines earlier before you guys woke up." Bernard said as he looked down at Vulp. "I used bait and this was the spot I know where all the fish tend to swim back around to but nothing is caught on the fishing lines." He said with concern.

"So? Maybe the fish ate the worms you chose and just swam away?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow, unsure of what Bernard was getting at.

"No..." Bernard said as he pulled one of the lines out of the water and held up the end where the hook was, revealing to the Celestial Spirits that the worms was still held on the lines. "Fish would have already have grabbed the worms by now... But the worms are still here..."

"Wait... How is that possible?" Corvus said with surprise as Vulp and Bernard looked at the line. "Didn't you set these up hours ago? And the worms are still here? What, are the fish not grabbing at all?" The crow said as he looked at the worms on the line.

"Look out at the river, I didn't notice it yesterday when I was looking for the bottom of the barrier but I noticed it now." Bernard said as he pointed in the direction of the water with Corvus and Vulp looking into the river, seeing nothing in the water.

"There's... Nothing. Not a fish in sight." Corvus said with surprise as Vulp continued to look around.

"This river, ever since I was a kid, was always filled with fish. Dozens of different kinds of the things, I used to beat Anatoli at fishing contests all the time because I knew where to throw the line off this part of the island... But now there's no fish..." Bernard said as he looked around before turning around back towards the direction of their tent. "Hey, you guys pass by Formosa when you came out here?" He questioned.

"Yeah, still standing around like a lump on a log." Corvus said as he flew off of Bernards shoulder as Bernard walked back towards the camp with Vulp and Corvus following him. As they walked back towards the campsite, they looked up at Formosa, still motionless.

"It hasn't left this spot since last night when I brought it out..." Bernard said with suspicion as Corvus and Vulp looked at Bernard and Formosa.

"Yeah, the thing hasn't moved from that spot since we woke-... Up..." Corvus said until he slowly came to a realization as he and Vulp looked at eachother as their eyes widened.

"It didn't move which means... Nothing came by all night." Bernard said as he turned around towards Corvus and Vulp. "Shhhh…" He mumbled to make everyone make no noise as they attempted to hear any creatures on the island.

Dead silence permeated the island as the trio looked around and noticed no sound was being made by any creatures in the trees, as if they were the only ones there.

"No-nothing..." Corvus said with concern.

"No fish... And no creatures on the land or in the trees... Somethings not right..." Bernard said as he looked at Corvus, Vulp and Formosa with a look of seriousness in his eyes.

* * *

**Let's hope whatever happens with Bernard and his pet brigade on the island, he doesn't try to be smash rocks against his friends from Psycho Circus. With the first night of Bernard and his Celestial Spirits confinement on the island out of the way and having some conversations that revealed some interesting facts, such as Bernards acknowledgment of Camillas intimate actions to him while he slept and his doubts in his ability to gain more magical power due to his Lacrima absorbing everything within him. The trio have found a new mystery, where is all the creatures surrounding the island? More to come, next time on Menagerie.**


	24. Chapter 24

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 9:01 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Formosa, come on back." Bernard said as the slime demon started to melt down and slink over to Bernard and went inside his Lacrima pacemaker once again. "Vulp, start sniffing around." He said as he looked at the fox Celestial Spirit.

Nodding in compliance, Vulp begun to sniff around on the ground for any traces or scents of any creatures on the island.

"I'm going to head up into the trees and see if I can find anything." Corvus said as he flew up into the trees.

"Good thinking, I'm going to look over back by the water once again." Bernard said as he walked away towards the river.

As Vulp continued to sniff around on the ground, Corvus was searching through the various large trees on the island in an effort to find some sign of anything on the island that was alive. Sticking his head through the leaves, Corvus searched around for any kind of nests in the trees.

"No eggs, no branches for nests..." Corvus said to himself as he stood on a branch towards the top of the tree. _"There's some scratch marks on the trees but they aren't fresh..."_ The crow thought as he continued to look around as he flapped his wings and flew up and over to another tree.

Meanwhile, back near the river, Bernard searched through the river some more by sticking his head in the water and opening his eyes under the water. As he moved his head around in the lake, he failed to find anything resembling a fish.

"Crap..." Bernard said as he pulled his wet head out of the water and started to wipe the water off his face. "Why is there no fish...?" He questioned to himself as he took his beanie off and proceeded to wring it to get rid of the wetness.

"Yo!" Corvus shouted as he and Vulp returned to the lakeside where Bernard was.

"Please tell me you guys found something." Bernard said as he turned around as Corvus and Vulp got close.

"I searched most of the upper areas and tried rustling some of the trees to see if there were any birds or squirrels asleep and I found zilch... There was some scratch marks on the trees but they weren't recent." Corvus said with a dejecting tone. "How about you?" Corvus said as he looked over towards Vulp, the fox shaking his head left and right in response to signify a negative reaction.

"Nothing huh?" Bernard said as Vulp continued to shake his head. "And since Vulps sense of smell is strong, you could have been able to smell any decomposing corpses that were here... So that means there is not even any dead here either..." He said as he put his hand on his chin and started to think.

"That a good or a bad thing?" Corvus asked as he looked over into the forest from the lakeside.

"Neither perhaps." Bernard said as he stood back up and placed his beanie back on his head. "Even if the island was full of dead animals, that still doesn't explain the lack of fish... No smells either... That makes no sense..." He continued as he and Vulp looked over at the woods together.

"You think the island might be uninhabitable?" Corvus wondered as he flew up and perched himself on Bernards shoulder.

"No, couldn't be. Look." Bernard said as he pointed over at a nearby tree that was full of fresh apples on it. "The foliage on the island is still flourishing just fine." He said as he looked at the tree with Vulp and Corvus, becoming more and more concerned as they looked around. "And look at the water, it's incredibly clean. The river flowing through town would have looked more toxic and trashy if there weren't any fish possibly in it." Bernard said as he continued to think.

"Clean water, fresh fruit on the trees and not a dead thing to stink up the air... How is there not a living thing on this island?" Corvus said as he, Vulp and Bernard continued to think.

"Well... It doesn't mean there wasn't anything here at all though. Corvus, you said you found scratch marks in the trees?" Bernard questioned as he looked at the crow.

"Yeah, looked like ones done by those little pink squirrel goblin things that like to build stuff from the trees." Corvus said as Bernard started to walk back to the camp as trio started to head back towards the campsite.

Reaching the firepit, Bernard sat down on one of the two logs that were down nearby as Vulp and Corvus sat next to him as they continued to ponder about the whereabouts of any other species of creature.

"There were things here when I was younger... Last time I was here, it was a little over a few months before I left Hemlock the first time." Bernard said as he tried to remember.

"This is weird... Oh and bad news for us!" Corvus exclaimed as Vulp and Bernard turned to look at him.

"How do ya figure that?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow towards the crow.

"If it's just us here... What are we going to do for food!?" Corvus screamed in a panicked tone as Bernards eyes twitched in annoyance.

"What? Don't want to eat more cold beans?" Bernard joked with a smirk as Vulp looked at Corvus with a mischievous grin.

"Ewww! No!" Corvus shouted in aggravation. "I'd rather have an ostrich stick its beak in my ass than eat any more of that trash!" The crow complained.

"Maybe if I can find a nice female pigeon for you that could shove its beak up your bum, then you'll be- hmmmm…" Bernard continued to joke until he stopped for a minute as a thought appeared in his head.

"What's up? Forgot your punchline?" Corvus said with annoyance as he and Vulp looked at Bernard.

"I just thought of something..." Bernard said as he looked up at the sky that was still covered by Camillas barrier.

"Well, I'm all ears, "Mr. Theory."' Corvus said.

"Well... Formosa was outside the whole night and was supposed to move if anything came into its line of sight, right?" Bernard said as he wondered. "And nothing came by, signifying there wasn't any predators or starving animals that came by our tent in a general sense..." He continued.

"Okay?" Corvus said with minor confusion.

"Knowing what I know about this island; no predators and no prey would mean they all disappeared but there's no decomposition or deceased here either, which would mean none of them are dead... They've all left." Bernard surmised.

"So all the animals just abandoned a perfectly livable island?" Corvus asked towards Bernard who shook his head.

"Most random creatures or animals don't just up and leave like a person moving out of an apartment... To leave this place behind in this perfectly serene condition... They'd have to have been scared off..." Bernard said as he looked at Vulp and Corvus, sitting in silence as they took in Bernards conclusion.

Suddenly, the silence between the trio was broken as a noise was went off on the other side of the island. Turning their heads in the direction of what they heard, the trio found themselves startled by the terrifying sounds of growls and roars that made Bernard, Corvus and Vulp feel chills up their spines as they realized they weren't alone anymore.

"Corvus...?" Bernard said as he continued to stare in the direction of the growls coming from the other side of the island.

"Yeah...?" Corvus said with hesitation as he and Vulp looked in the same direction as Bernard.

"Did you or Vulp check the other side of the island?" Bernard said with a look of seriousness as he swallowed spit.

"No..." Corvus said as he begun to feel nervous.

"...Let's move." Bernard said as he begun to sprint in the direction of the growls and roars that permeated the air.

"I know I am not going to like this..." Corvus said to himself as he and Vulp quickly moved to follow Bernard.

Rushing through the woods and passing through the trees to get to the other side of the island and find the source of the percussive screaming and roaring from the unknown entity that was making it, the trio stopped at a series of bushes that stood in their way as Bernard used his hands to push away the foliage. Looking out at an open field on the other side of the woods, Bernard, Corvus and Vulp looked and saw a sight that confused and shocked them.

Standing in the open field were a pair of vastly different looking creatures facing eachother, both showing signs of hostility to one another.

One creature stood large and vicious on all fours. Sporting a large purple tree-like appendage on top of its shellback, the creature looked like a gigantic poisonous and acidic turtle that appeared as large as an elephant. With its green skin and flat feet and a shell-like hide around its main body, it was covered in dripping flowers and flytraps alongside its purple tree-like growth on its back. Its head also appeared to be dripping swamp-like goop over its turtle shaped body along with its orange glowing eyes and tree branch-like horns sticking out from the swampy skull that made it up.

The other entity appeared much smaller by comparison to the other creatures elephant-size frame, appearing more around the size of a bear. With its triangular shaped head and lizard shaped body, its body was brimming in rock-like cover and armor like that of a protective layer that also ended in a rocky tail. It bore sharp stalagmite-like fangs in the direction of the large turtle monster as it stared at it with hollow and empty black eyes directed at it.

_"What the hell am I looking at...?"_ Bernard thought to himself as he and the Celestial Spirits stared at a pair of unfamiliar creatures staring eachother down.

"Guess we found the screams..." Corvus whispered as Bernard nodded in response.

As they looked on, the turtle monster growled once again at the smaller lizard monster as a pair of long vines with flytrap-like suckers started to stretch out from its backside from the tree on its hide and lunged at the rocky lizard. Quickly managing to dig a hole, the rocky lizard ducked away from the oncoming attack from the other creature by burrowing into the hole.

As the tentacle hit the ground, they quickly twisted back around and reached down into the hole that the other creature made to escape the previous attack and latched onto the rock lizard, pulling it up and out of the hole by its tail and leaving it dangling in the air as it flailed about in an attempt to wiggle free.

"Well that doesn't look good..." Bernard whispered as Vulp and Corvus continued to stare.

As it dangled the rock lizard, the turtle looked at the lizard with a vicious and animalistic glare as it roared at it and proceeded to lift the rock lizard high into the air with its vine tentacles and slammed it down onto the ground hard. Lifting it back up from its slam, the turtle continued to hold onto the lizard by the tail as it repeated the same action of lifting and slamming the lizard over and over again as bits and pieces of the rock-like body of its opponent seemed to fall off with each slam. Bored from its continuous thrashing, the turtle monster threw the lizard away like someone throwing away trash towards the trees as the rocky lizard laid on its back in pain.

"Talk about one-sided..." Corvus muttered as he looked at Bernard who was staring at the turtle monster with a look of interest. "What's up?" The crow questioned quietly as he and Vulp looked at Bernards expression.

"I think we found our "predator."' Bernard said with a serious look in his eyes as he pointed at the turtle monster.

"That thing? Seriously?" Corvus said with an expression of disbelief. "This and that gravely thing are the first creatures we have found here, it could be either one of them that could be responsible for the lack of animals or fish on the island." Corvus explained.

"...Call it a hunch but judging by the lack of restraint with the slamming it just did, that big plant turtle thing appears to be more feral than that rock lizard thing it's fighting." Bernard surmised as Corvus and Vulp looked at him as he was deep in thought.

"Don't know about "hunches" but that lizard thing is going to be turned into "gravel stew" at this rate." Corvus mutters as the trio watch the turtle monster begin to step forward towards the downed lizard, as if to administer the finishing blow.

"Damn it, we gotta do something and quick." Bernard said as he stood up from the bushes with Corvus and Vulp following suit. "Vulp, use your tail! Grab its leg!" He barked an order at Vulp as the fox nodded in compliance as Vulps tail begun to separate into several small tendrils.

Lunging forward, Vulps hairy tendrils wrapped around one of the back legs of the plant turtle monster in an attempt to pull it away from the downed rock lizard. Catching its attention, the turtle looked back and noticed the trios presence as it stared at the three of them with a look of hunger in its eyes. Turning around, it used the force of its mass and strength to pull Vulp in the direction of where it turned and sent the fox Celestial Spirit careening towards a nearby set of trees. Letting go of the monster, Vulp brought its tail back towards him and used it as a cushion to make it so he wouldn't impact hard against the trees.

"Nice work Vulp! My turn!" Corvus shouted as the turtle changed its gaze towards the crow as Corvus begun to spark red and white electricity. Unleashing a mass of lightning bolts, the creature was struck by the series of electrical attacks but it appeared unfazed by the bolts of lightning hitting it as the tree on the back of its body wasn't even singed by the strikes.

Launching its vine tentacle suckers towards Corvus, the crow quickly took evasive actions in an attempt to dodge being grabbed by the flytrap vines that was launched towards him. Dodging left and right, Corvus was successful in evading the creatures continuous attempts at grabbing the crow.

"Sucks to suck! Hahaha!" Corvus exclaimed loudly as the rock lizard from before watched as the two Celestial Spirits continued to do battle with its prior adversary as the rock lizard attempted to dig a hole with the remainder of its strength and escape without being detected.

As Corvus distracted the tentacles lunging at it, the turtle turned its attention from Corvus towards Bernard who was standing in its line of sight as Bernard gulped at the fact it was now fixated on him. Reaching its head down towards the ground, the turtle proceeded to bite into the ground and picked up a mass of rocks in it mouth as it fired the acid covered boulders towards Bernard.

"Oh crap!" Bernard screamed as he ducked down to dodge the oncoming rocks. Expecting the rocks to hit him, he opened one eye and noticed slashing noises as he looked forward and noticed Vulp standing in front of him with his tail in the shape of a large broadsword and the acidic rocks cut in half on the ground. "Hey thanks Vulp! I- Uh?!" He exclaimed until he noticed Vulps tail was now lightly covered in the acidic juices that were original on the rocks with the fox recoiling in minor pain from the burning sensation.

"Oh no!" Corvus said as he turned his head towards Vulps direction and noticed his fellow Celestial Spirit in pain, distracting him long enough for one of the tentacles to swat the crow out of the sky and flying towards the direction of the ground. "Gahhh!" Corvus exclaimed in pain as he bounced on the ground.

"Damn it!" Bernard exclaimed as he looked at Corvus on the ground nearby with Vulp still wincing in pain from his tail being covered in acid. Turning his attention back towards the turtle monster, the turtle monster proceeded to appear like it was breathing in a ton of air as it begun to let loose a large purple mist from its body from the tree on its shell. _"It's mouth is full of acidic juices so that mist can't be good! Time for a retreat!"_ Bernard thought as he looked at the approaching mist with sweat on his face as he grabbed the injured Celestial Spirits in his arms and ran in the direction from which he and the Celestial Spirits came from.

"St-stop! We can take the bastard!" Corvus exclaimed while in Bernards arm.

"Vulps burning right now and you just got knocked out of the air with your lightning barely making a scratch! We need an actual strategy to fight that thing!" Bernard shouted as he looked at Corvus as he ran through the forest while carrying the crow and fox in his arms. Suddenly, their moment of respite was ruined as Bernard looked back and noticed the turtle monsters loud growls appeared close by as the turtle monster begun to knock over the trees in an attempt to chase him. "What the?!" He exclaimed in fear and shock as he tried to run faster.

"I thought turtles were supposed to be slow?!" Corvus screamed as he looked back and noticed the fast speeds of the approaching turtle monster as it was gaining on Bernard.

_"Crap! We're running out of options!" _Bernard thought with genuine fear in his eyes as he attempted to sprint away from the oncoming behemoth behind them who was using its tentacles to knock down several trees to give it more space to move in an attempt to catch its prey. Bernards breathing started to become heavier as he ran, prompting Corvus and Vulp look at him with looks of concern.

"Oh crap! Is it your heart?!" Corvus shouted in worry as Bernard was showing signs of fatigue.

"No choice left..." Bernard said with a tired tone as he started to slow down with the massive turtle gaining on them. "Corvus! My pacemaker! Tap it!" He shouted in an orderly fashion towards Corvus.

"G-got it!" Corvus said as he understood immediately what he meant as he pecked his beak against Bernards Lacrima rock in his chest as Formosa begun to slink out from under his clothes.

"Formosa! Take your speed form!" Bernard shouted as Formosa quickly begun to form into its puddle slime mode with its spikes sticking out as Bernard grabbed the spikes to use as a pair of handles with Corvus and Vulp standing on the slime monster, Vulp using the slime to wash the burning sensation off his tail. Absorbing more of energy from Bernards heart, Formosa moved incredibly fast along the ground and finally managing to outrun the large turtle beast.

"Where we going!?" Corvus exclaimed as he and Vulp held on to the horns to maintain their balance on Formosa.

"Anywhere but here to hide!" Bernard shouted as he looked back towards the turtle beast with it staring angrily at him.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 6:07 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Nightfall had arrived as the group had spent several hours since the encounter with the giant turtle monster from earlier that day. Hiding behind a tree nearby from their original campsite, Bernard stuck his head out to look around in an attempt to see if the monster had found them. Thankfully, they were alone as Bernard quietly motioned for Vulp and Corvus to follow him as they walked over to the logs nearby from the firepit.

"I... Think we are good..." Bernard said between breaths as Vulp and Corvus sat quietly on the ground. "You guys alright?" He said with concerned as he laid on the log.

"My back hurts..." Corvus said as he rubbed his backside as Vulp looked over his own tail at the slightly burnt hair. Bernard, looking at them with eyes of concern, proceeded to stand up and walk over to them and put his hands on their heads and discharged some more of his energy into them.

As the Celestial Spirits received more of the energy from Bernards Lacrima, Corvus slowly started to feel like his back was starting to feel better as Vulps tail begun to reform the burned hairs into normal ones.

"Whoa! That hit the spot..." Corvus said as he and Vulp begun to stand up and feeling better as Bernard clutched his heart in exhaustion, panting for air. "Whoa hey! You didn't have to do that for us! Think about your condition..." Corvus said with concern as Vulp looked at Bernard with worry.

"It's okay! It's okay..." Bernard exclaimed. "Besides... You guys need it if we are going to make it through the night. Don't know where that thing is…" He said as he sat against one of the logs and slowly breathed to get back some of his composure. _"A large frame and it could move that fast, it has acidic and gaseous properties, tentacles or whatever too... That thing is too much for us right now with the way we are..." _Bernard thought worryingly.

"Looks like we lost it for now..." Corvus said as Vulp looked around to make sure.

"Based on the way it looked at me... It looks like it's hungry..." Bernard said as slowly as possible as he was still recuperating.

"Well we aren't letting it eat you like some kind of "Bernard pie!"' Corvus said with concern as he sat on the log opposite of the one Bernard was sitting in front of. "Pretty sure your friends at the guild would kill me and Vulp if we let that happen."

"Wish we weren't stuck alone in here with that thing... We don't have enough of the power necessary to fight it." Bernard said tiredly.

"My lightning didn't do crap and Vulp wasn't strong enough to keep it from throwing him around like that lizard thing..." Corvus said as Vulp put his head down in a defeated fashion.

"Speaking of which, did you guys see that thing at all since we started running?" Bernard questioned as he looked at the Celestial Spirits.

"Nope, it disappeared the moment we got its attention." Corvus said.

"Good to know..." Bernard said with a sigh.

"Are you referring to me?" Suddenly, a new voice that sounded similar to that of a middle aged woman had appeared as Bernard, Corvus and Vulps eyes widened in sudden shock as they all stood up and looked around in various directions to try and hear where the voice came from.

"What was that?!" Bernard said loudly in surprise as Vulp and Corvus surrounded Bernard in a protective manner.

"Kid, stay behind us!" Corvus said as he sparked up and Vulp begun to spike up his tail in an effort to get ready to fight.

"I mean no harm." Said the same older woman's voice once again to the trio.

"Yeah, like we are believing that?! And where the hell are you talking from?!" Corvus exclaimed loudly as the group continued to look around.

_"Wait... That sounded like it was transmitted into my head... Telepathy?"_ Bernard thought as he turned to one direction and noticed something large approaching the trio.

Stepping out of the shadows was the large rock lizard creature from before as it slowly moved forward on all fours.

"Whoa! Whoa! Stay back!" Corvus said angrily in a defensive way to get the creature to stop moving towards the group.

"Calm down bird." The rock lizard said telepathically to the group.

"Who you calling "bird?!" I'm a crow!" Corvus shouted in a fury as Bernard grabbed him from out of the air to get him to calm down before he could attack the rock lizard.

"Easy now, easy." Bernard said as he held Corvus in his arms. "You." He said as he looked at the rock lizard. "You are using telepathy to talk to us. Correct?" Bernard questioned.

"Correct." The rock lizard said telepathically as Vulp and Corvus noticed its mouth wasn't moving as it spoke.

"You can talk without moving your mouth?" Corvus asked of the rock lizard.

"Also correct." The rock lizard said calmly in its voice that sounded like that of a middle aged woman.

_"And it's female too..."_ Bernard thought as he continued to look at it. "What are you and what do you want?" He asked of the rock lizard.

"Before I answer those questions, I wish to give you some reprieve. The creature that attacked you prior will not attack you during this time as it prefers to move when there is daylight." The rock lizard said, almost in a way to appeal to the group.

"Uh huh, sure. And maybe this is some kind of trap so you can eat us." Corvus said with skepticism.

"I don't eat flesh as I don't have the same kind of digestive organs that other creatures carry." The rock lizard said.

'"Digestive organs?" You don't have a stomach or anything like it?" Bernard wondered as he put down Corvus as Vulp continued to stare at the rock lizard with his tail bladed.

"And I see your compatriots tail is fine after it was dowsed with some of the monsters acidic fluids. I'm glad for the quick recovery." The rock lizard said in a calm tone as Vulp looked at it for a bit with confusion before making his tail return to normal, no longer viewing it as a threat.

"Well yeah, I'm thankful too but I don't see how it affects you in any way." Corvus said with continued skepticism.

"Hold on." Bernard said as he put his hand on Corvus' head to get him to calm down. "Let me handle this alright?" He whispered to the crow in an effort to keep him level headed. "Can you please answer my questions now?" Bernard spoke up to the rock lizard.

"If that is what you wish. I'll first by answering the question of who I am." The rock lizard said calmly. "When I was first formed, I wasn't sure of what to call myself but I did have some grasp of the language you humans refer to as an "alphabet." I chose letters and I named myself "Baurs."' The rock lizard said, revealing its name to be "Baurs."'

"Okay then, Baurs… Wait, you said "first formed," what does that mean?" Bernard said with curiosity.

"Wait... Hold on, I know what you are!" Corvus said loudly as everyone looked in his direction. "The lack of regular organs, the rocky appearance... You're an Elemental!" The crow exclaimed as Bernard and Vulp looked at Baurs with confusion.

"That is a precise answer." Baurs said, agreeing with Corvus' assumption.

"The heck's an "Elemental?"' Bernard wondered as he asked Corvus.

"Oh, these things are super weird." Corvus mutters to Bernard. "You know how there's magic "all around us" in a way? Well, basically, that magic is full of "spirits." Different ones though than us Celestial Spirits, obviously, you get the point." The crow continued.

"Okay?" Bernard said as he tried to follow along as he looked at Baurs.

"Basically, spirits from within magic in the air form a consciousness of sorts and then take shape from an aspect of the natural environment. Water, lightning, fire, among other things." Corvus explained as Bernard continued to look at Baurs form.

"And judging by that and the way you look... You're an Earth Elemental?" Bernard asked towards Baurs as the rock lizard nodded its head.

"Precisely." Baurs agreed.

"I'm surprised you speak with such a calm and older voice." Bernard said with a raised eyebrow as Vulp nodded in similar confusion.

"Well, I can answer that too." Corvus spoke up as Bernard and Vulp looked at him. "Elementals are the ultimate "slot machine creatures" if that makes any sense. Some are big and some are small, some are intelligent enough to speak and some are braindead stupid, some are fast and some are slow and some have many powers at their disposal based on how many "spirits of magic" banded together to form the entity while others don't. There's only one consistency between Elementals; randomness." The crow continued to explain.

"...How do you know so much about this?" Bernard said with surprise at Corvus' knowledge on Elementals.

"You spend a few hours on a tree in the Celestial Spirit world next to Crux and you're bound to retain something you thought would be useless from that senile living cross." Corvus said with a smirk as he felt he could finally utilize the knowledge he had gained that he thought was worthless.

"It would seem the knowledge your bird was given was accurate. That saved me some trouble explaining things." Baurs stated as Corvus grew annoyed at her referring to him as a "bird."

"Okay, so you are an Earth Elemental named Baurs, that answers one question. Now what about the other, what do you want from us?" Bernard asked with a serious look in his eyes.

"And better yet, what were you doing earlier fighting that giant turtle plant thing?" Corvus asked a question of his own.

"Well, to answer the question of what I was doing with the "giant turtle plant thing" as you so put it... I was fighting it to destroy it." Baurs said as her tone became more serious in nature. "Long before I was formed, this creature that you ran from was created by similar means as my own and begun a campaign of carnivorous destruction on this once peaceful plot of land." She explained.

"Well... That proves your theory. Huh, kid?" Corvus said as he looked up at Bernard who made a serious expression.

"Kinda was wishing I was wrong..." Bernard retorted as he continued to listen to Baurs. _"Wait... "similar means?"' _He thought as he listened.

"Using its large size and strength to its advantage, it proceeded to devour anything that failed to match its size and in time, creatures from all throughout this land had taken efforts to escape and not return. Soon after the land animals disappeared, it took its attention to the creatures within the water and then soon after, the ones in the air." Baurs explained. "To stop it from laying waste to this land further, I was formed from spirits that desired its destruction and prevention of its current actions." She continued.

"You mentioned "similar means…" So its also an Elemental?" Bernard asked.

"Correct. A Plant Elemental to be more specific." Baurs said as it nodded to Bernards question.

"And it's been eating up anything on this island that it can find... Also explains the lack of fish... But wait, you don't have any organs so shouldn't it not have any?" Corvus said with confusion.

"Aren't you the one who said us Elementals are the "ultimate slot machine creatures?" And how random we all are?" Baurs said as she looked at Corvus who started to scratch the back of his head with his wing in embarrassment.

"Oh... Right..." Corvus said with embarrassment.

"She got you there. Hehe." Bernard chuckled as Corvus looked at him with annoyance.

"Using human alphabet, I have dubbed this creature a name; "Cercis"' Baurs said as she named the giant carnivorous plant turtle monster "Cercis." "I have been battling this creature a total of four thousand, three hundred and eighty hours of time... And have failed more times than succeeded in preventing it from devouring the many creatures of this island for needless sustenance."

"Four thousand and three- That's six months!" Bernard exclaimed loudly as he did the math. "You have been fighting this thing for six whole months?!" He continued to exclaim in surprise.

"Indeed. And have failed on numerous occasions due to the power difference between us." Baurs said with a worried tone in her voice. "I was given intelligence and the ability to understand human speech and minor knowledge and despite my large form, I lack the amount of powers that Cercis has by comparison." She continued.

"The flytrap tentacles, the acidic spit, the poisonous gas, the larger bodily frame... It even shrugged off Corvus' lightning." Bernard said aloud as it listed what he had seen so far from Cercis. "What can you do besides talk?" He asked of Baurs.

"I dig holes." Baurs stated bluntly as Bernard, Corvus and Vulp looked at the rock lizard with dumbfounded expressions.

"...That doesn't sound helpful." Corvus said as he continued to stare.

"Poor "luck of the draw" if that's what you humans say correctly." Baurs said as she looked at Bernard.

"No kidding..." Bernard said as he scratched his head. "Well... Now that we know what's going on... What do you want from us?" He said as Corvus and Vulp looked at him, unsure of what he meant. "You wouldn't have gone through the trouble of finding us if you didn't need something from us."

"It would appear you are the brains, good... I could ask you too." Baurs stated as the trio just looked in confusion to what she meant.

"Cut to the chase, what do you want." Corvus said as he grew impatient.

"Cooperation between you three and me and my crusade." Baurs said as she looked at the trio.

'"Cooperation?" You want our help?" Bernard said while trying to understand Baurs meaning.

"Precisely. Your crow knows long range attacks and the shapeshifting abilities of your fox may prove to tip the scale in my favor in my war with Cercis. I wish to ask for your assistance in the matter." Baurs said as she bowed her head whilst making a request towards the trio.

"Ummmm… I don't know. This doesn't really concern us." Corvus said as he rubbed the back of his head with his wing as Vulp looked up at Bernard for his answer.

"Cercis desires to eat any and all things it finds "edible." Are you not worried about this one?" Baurs said as she pointed her long tail at Bernard as she looked at Corvus.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Corvus said in a defensive tone.

"...Cercis knows we are on the island... Come morning, it's going to come looking for me." Bernard said as he drew a conclusion that he is now a target as Corvus and Vulps eyes widened.

"Oh crap!" Corvus exclaimed loudly as he realized what Baurs meant.

"Which is why I desire to form an alliance. I was formed to prevent such a thing to any and all creatures on this island by Cercis and as such, we have a mutual understanding..." Baurs said as she stared at Bernard.

"But I thought you said you wanted us to help you take it down?" Bernard asked.

"I would like for your help in doing that as well." Baurs reiterated. "The only way for this island to be how it once was is to destroy Cercis and with the way I am, I can't do much but with a combined effort, we might stand a chance." She continued.

"You think we should go through with this?" Corvus asked towards Bernard as Bernard sat down on the log.

"...If we are going through with this... We are going to need a plan..." Bernard said as he looked at everyone as Corvus, Vulp and Baurs nodded in agreement with Bernards statement as he started to brainstorm.

* * *

**Somehow, cold beans for dinner sounds better than becoming a giant ravenous Plant Elementals dinner. Bernard and co. have found the source of Nereid Islands lack of animals and fish; a giant turtle shaped plant beast dubbed Cercis that has now set its sights on Bernard to become its next meal. After learning this from the creatures enemy, the Earth Elemental, Baurs, Bernard, Corvus and Vulp form an alliance with the rock lizard to destroy the giant beast but first, they need a plan. Will they succeed in destroying the beast before Psycho Circus arrives in several days? Will the lack of animals play a factor? Will Bernards energy give out before then? So many questions! Maybe to be answered, next time on Menagerie!**

**Authors Note: (Hey, it's me. Several things; One. Baurs name is pronounced "Bow-Ers" for anyone confused and if you aren't sure of how she looks visually, look up an image search of an extinct dinosaur-esque lizard known as the "Diplocaulus" but replace the lizard skin with rubble and stone. As for Cercis, picture a giant turtle monster with a tree on its back covered in dripping flowers. I know most are going to think of Torterra from Pokémon but picture a more corrupted and "messed up" version if it helps you best picture it. See you next time and thanks for reading and don't forget to post a review as it is always nice to see.)**


	25. Chapter 25

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island__, 8:51 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Growling violently as it searched around, the massive Plant Elemental, Cercis had begun to stalk new prey to quench its insatiable appetite. As it walked through the woods and knocked over trees with its massive frame and droplets of toxic ooze dripping of it leaving melted impressions in the ground, unbeknownst to it was the prey it was hunting was watching it back.

Looking down from a tree overheard from where Cercis was stomping, Bernard and the Celestial Spirits were spying on the large monster.

_"There you are, you piece of crap..."_ Bernard thought as he watched the monster storm off as it looked for him. "Okay... It's currently looking for me." He said as he looked at Corvus and Vulp who were sitting on a pair of branches.

"Yeah, looks like it. What's the plan here kid?" Corvus asked as the crow and Vulp looked at Bernard, awaiting orders.

"Sneak attack for now. Aim for the big tree." Bernard said as he pointed at the large tree on the back of Cercis as the pair of Celestial Spirits watched. "Baurs… You there?" He said as he looked down towards the ground.

After asking for her, the large lizard-like Earth Elemental, Baurs, proceeded to poke her head through the ground and looked up towards Bernard and the Celestial Spirits in the tree.

"I am here. What do you suggest I do?" Baurs asked as Bernard, Corvus and Vulp jumped down from the tree and looked at her.

"First, what took you so long to get over here?" Bernard asked as he looked at her through the hole.

"My body is very large and I can only move so much given what I can do. I can dig holes but only so fast. When I fought Cercis yesterday, I already started to dig that hole when I dodged its attack." Baurs explained.

"Okay, I get it." Bernard said as he turned his attention towards the direction Cercis was walking. "Vulp... Cut its tree off once Corvus shoots it with lightning." He said as the Celestial Spirits nodded.

"Once again, what do you suggest I do?" Baurs asked.

"You are the escape route. That hole you are in will be our escape if things go sideways." Bernard said as he looked at Cercis whose backside was still facing away from him and the other creatures. "Okay, Corvus... Now!"

"I'm on it!" Corvus said as he flew into the air with lightning bolts starting to form from his body.

With electrical bolts emerging from his body and blasting down in the direction of the massive monster, Cercis, the large blast had struck the tree on the top of its shell. Screaming in response from the blast, Cercis turned around in the direction of Bernard and the other monsters as it watched them with glowing orange eyes of anger.

"Its spotted us!" Bernard screamed as he turned back towards the direction of Baurs and the hole she dug. "Vulp, now! The tree!" He shouted as Vulps tail had formed a blade and stretched it quickly towards the direction of Cercis' tree appendage.

Quickly slicing off the tree, the large monsters tree appendage had been felled and landed on the ground on the side of the beast.

"Alright! Power source is gone!" Corvus shouted as he and Vulp looked content with the detachment of its large tree. "Suck on that, you stupid- Uhhhh… Kid?!" The crow exclaimed as Bernard looked up from close to the hole.

"What the..." Bernard said as he turned his attention from Corvus back towards the monster as Cercis looked at Bernard with an angry smirk on its face as its flytrap-like tentacles proceeded to stick out from its shell and begun to suck on the trees, like a sucking machine to a cows udder. As it stuck its flytrap tentacles on the tree, nutrients and raw energy was beginning to be drained from the trees as they started to wither and shrivel up as the tree on Cercis' back had begun to sprout and had grown back. _"It's not the power source..."_ Bernard thought with nervousness as he quickly rushed to get inside Baurs hole in the ground.

"Oh crap!" Corvus exclaimed as he flew down and picked up Vulp with his talons as he proceeded to head away from the location of Cercis as it roared. "Kid! Run!" The crow shouted as Cercis' stretched out its tentacles in an attempt to grab Bernard as the young man jumped in to the hole and proceeded to follow Baurs through the tunnel to escape.

"Move, move!" Bernard shouted as he ran through the tunnel with Baurs following behind him as one of Cercis' tentacles went into the hole in an attempt to grab him. Looking back and noticing the approaching tentacle with a large gaping maw of a flytrap attempting to eat him, Bernard made a grim face of despair as he attempted to run faster to avoid being grabbed.

"Up ahead!" Baurs shouted as it ran on all fours next to Bernard as it warned him of up ahead. Looking forward, Bernard noticed another hole in the ground as he rushed and dove into it with Baurs following behind him to escape danger. As the tentacle reached forward, it stopped as it reached its maximum distance of where it could stretch and started to return in the direction of its point of origin.

As he sat in the hole with Baurs, Bernard started to pant heavily as he held onto his heart in an attempt to calm down.

"Are you alright?" Baurs said in her calm tone.

"No! I'm not alright! I was almost plant food!" Bernard said angrily as he stood up and started to climb out of the hole with Baurs following him out of the hole back into the main tunnel. "Come on, we need to get back topside... And hopefully the bastard isn't there..." He said with a tone of anger and worry as he and Baurs went in the opposite direction of where Cercis' tentacles had tried to grab him. _"Plan B time..."_ Bernard thought as he ran.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 11:56 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Alright, there it is..." Bernard whispered to the creatures as they hid in the bushes. Looking through the foliage, Cercis was looking around for Bernard in the open field of where they originally saw him.

"Okay, be careful." Corvus said with concern in his voice as Bernard nodded.

"This "other ally" you mentioned? Is he strong?" Baurs asked of Corvus as the Celestial Spirits looked at the Elemental.

"Its an "it" and I'm hoping its stronger than the turtle plant." Corvus said as they continued to look through the bushes as Bernard approached Cercis.

"Hey ugly!" Bernard screamed as Cercis turned its head with an evil smile forming on its face as it looked at the beanie-sporting young man with acidic orange drool dripping out of its mouth. "The "Bernard Sandwich" is not on the menu!" He shouted in anger as large plant monster slowly approached.

Reaching under his shirt, Bernard begun to press on his pacemaker Lacrima a number of times as black, red and blue liquid started to come out of him as Formosa had begun to emerge and take its large fluid golem form with its glowing green eyes and boney spikes and fingers.

Cercis, locking eyes with the giant fluid monster, made a confrontational gaze at it as the golem looked aimlessly at the turtle beast. Bernard, placing his hands on the leg of Formosa, had started to transfer energy into the creature from his pacemaker Lacrima. Whilst becoming tired as he transferred energy, Baurs, Corvus and Vulp arrived behind Bernard to help prop him up to prevent him from falling down.

"Formosa! Attack!" Bernard ordered as Vulp and Corvus helped Bernard onto Baurs, in-between the spines on her back, to use as a mount as Formosa shouted its mighty roar and rushed at Cercis. _"Okay, Formosa is a slime so it shouldn't be affected physically by the tentacles or the suckers and it has no nostrils so it shouldn't have to worry about inhaling any of the poison gas."_ He thought as he watched Formosa lunge at Cercis.

Cercis, launching its tentacles forward, attempted to try and attack the slime beast but was caught off guard by Formosa reaching its giant three-fingered hands out and grabbing hold of the tentacles. Pulling on the tentacles, Cercis begun to feel intense pain as Formosa yanked out the tentacles from the Plant Elementals body. As the turtle recoiled in pain, Formosa proceeded to swing its arms back and forth and repeatedly slam its giant open palms against Cercis.

"Aww yeah! Go you freaky slime thing!" Corvus exclaimed happily as he and Vulp jumped up and down in excitement at Formosa being able to damage the beast.

"I've been able to damage Cercis before but not to that extent." Baurs said as she watched as Bernard stared on her back.

_"Okay, so far so good... Damn it, I'm starting to feel sleepy..." _Bernard thought tired as he watched Formosa fight. As he was starting to fall over slightly, Bernard gripped hard onto the spines on Baurs back to maintain his balance.

_"He isn't doing too well- Huh?"_ Baurs thought as she looked back slightly at the tired Bernard on her back as she noticed his hands was slightly glowing as he held onto her backside to stay upright.

As Cercis ducked its neck from another strike by Formosa, the turtle beast took the opportunity to breathe in as its cheeks swelled up. Blowing a mass of orange gas in the face of the slime golem, Formosa proceeded to step back from the force of the gas blowing in its face.

"What was that?!" Corvus exclaimed as he and Vulps eyes widened in surprise.

"More of its toxins." Baurs said as she got the others attention. "That gas is highly acidic." She explained.

_"It's not poison... It's an acid... Oh no..."_ Bernard thought until he came to a conclusion and looked at Formosa with a face full of nervousness. "Formosa! Come back!" Bernard shouted as Corvus and Vulp looked at him.

"What?! Why?!" Corvus shouted in confusion as the Celestial Spirits turned their attention back towards Formosa and noticed something strange.

Formosa, after being dowsed with orange gas, had begun to melt down into a pile of large ooze and fluid onto the ground as Bernard and the other creatures watched in horror as their most powerful ally at the moment was getting knocked down.

"Wha-what's going on?!" Corvus said as he looked at Bernard.

"The poison gas from yesterday was one thing... This is another kind. It's mixed with that acid from its innards and its causing Formosa to melt from the high toxicity..." Bernard explained as he watched as he moved his legs off Baurs backside as he rushed towards where Formosa was.

"Kid!" Corvus shouted in surprise as Vulp quickly rushed to help Bernard. Reaching his hands into the ooze, Bernard put more of his internal energy into the downed Formosa. As he gave more of his energy, Formosa proceeded to slink back up Bernards clothes and into his Lacrima pacemaker. Looking up, Cercis proceeded to look down at Bernard as he looked up in fear as the monster opened its mouth and stretched its neck in an attempt to eat him until Vulp transformed his tail into a flail-like ball covered in spikes and swung it into the face of the large beast to keep it from eating Bernard as the fox grabbed Bernard by his shirt with his mouth and pulled him back towards Baurs and Corvus.

"Let's make like a banana... And split!" Corvus exclaimed as he flew away with Baurs, Vulp and Bernard rushed into the forest to escape as Bernard looked back towards Cercis as the creature roared loudly and destructively in the groups direction before looking up at the sky and noticing the barrier around the island, Bernard swallowing spit in response as the group circled around a tree and stopped running.

"Damn it! Even the slime couldn't do a damn thing!" Corvus exclaimed in frustration as he stood in a tree as he looked down at Bernard, Vulp and Baurs on the ground as Bernard sat against a tree.

"It was working well at the start." Baurs said calmly until Corvus looked at her with annoyance.

"Yeah! But it wasn't the whole time, you dumb pile of rubble!" Corvus shouted angrily.

"Please, don't yell. Cercis could hear us." Baurs said.

"Grrr… Damn it! Kid, any more plans- Huh?" Corvus said until he looked in Bernard direction and noticed he was sitting down and breathing heavily once again as Vulp looked at him with concern. "Hey... You doing okay?" The crow said with a worried tone.

"I'm... Fine..." Bernard said slowly and between breaths.

"You seem out of power." Baurs said as she watched Bernard continue to breath in exhaustion.

"Yeah and trees are brown and green in the spring..." Corvus said sarcastically towards Baurs as he looked at Bernard.

"Give me a minute..." Bernard said tiredly. "I'll come up with a new plan..." He continued with his hands over his eyes.

_"...He's scared..."_ Corvus thought with concern as he watched Bernard breath.

_'"Out of power..."_ Hmmmm…" Baurs thought as she looked at Bernard, contemplation forming in her rocky head.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 3:14 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"You sure about this?" Corvus asked as he stood on Bernards shoulder with Vulp and Baurs in front of him in the woods.

"This sounds like it could be a rough idea if it doesn't work." Baurs said as it looked at Bernard with Vulp nodding in agreeance.

"It will work, trust me." Bernard said as Corvus flew off his shoulder and got ready. "First things first, its shaped in the style of a massive turtle, if we flip it over onto its backside then we it won't be able to get back up and then we destroy it. And if it's a small space, there won't be much room for it to use its tentacles to escape!" He said with an assuring tone.

"Well... Alright." Corvus said as the group started to dig a pit into the ground.

"Once we finish this hole, and it falls in, we are in the clear... I hope..." Bernard said with the last part nervously as Vulp and Corvus looked at him with worry.

"You sound desperate..." Corvus said with a concerned tone.

"I'm not desperate!" Bernard shouted in a scared and angry tone.

_"...Says the guy who is sweating like crazy right now..."_ Corvus thought with worry as he watched Bernard sweat profusely as the group continued to dig the pitfall.

After several minutes of digging out the slope in the pitfall, Bernard took the tarp that was used for his tent at the campsite to cover it and Corvus flew up to the trees and took several leaves off it and the group used them to hide the tarp and hole.

"That outta do it." Bernard said as he grabbed Vulp and Corvus and motioned for Baurs to follow him into the bushes to hide. "Now we wait..." He said with eyes full of anxiety.

"Hey, you alright?" Corvus asked out of curiosity towards Bernards slow decline in clarity.

"You seem stressed." Baurs said as Bernard turned towards them.

"Why wouldn't I be alright?! I'm not stressed at all! I'm perfectly calm!" Bernard said frantically as he continuously turned back and forth between looking at the monsters and the pitfall trap as Corvus and Vulp made worried expressions before Baurs nudged Corvus to get catch the crows attention.

"Excuse me, but I have a question." Baurs asked of Corvus as he looked at the rock lizard.

"What do you want now?" Corvus said as he looked at Baurs.

"How is this man able to empower you? As well as the fox and that beastly slime?" Baurs asked as she pointed at Bernard with her arrow-like head.

"He uses this thing in his heart that keeps him alive. One of those magic Lacrima stones is embedded in his chest that keeps his heart running but it sucks out all of his power and uses it as its own to keep him from dying. He also can somehow transfer that power out of himself into me and Vulp so we can use our powers and the weird slime thing needs constant energy just to even move. I don't understand it completely but..." Corvus explained as he stared at Bernard.

'"But?"' Baurs said with curiosity.

"I think he has been using too much of it lately... He doesn't know how to control the power transfer outside of just giving the energy and he can only operate off what the stone can give him before he might potentially kick the bucket. Awhile ago, when we first got the slime thing, Bernard used up so much of the power in his chest to stop this guy we fought in the capital city, he passed out for the rest of the day until the next morning and he needed medical treatment on top." Corvus explained to Baurs.

"I see..." Baurs said as she continued to stare at Bernard with a look of curiosity.

"Shhh! Quiet! It's coming!" Bernard whispered loudly as Corvus and Baurs got closer to Bernard and Vulp as they looked through the bushes.

Cercis, continuing to hunt for Bernard, begun to stomp around and walk slowly through the woods, continuing to knock over trees as it approached the pathway where Bernards trap was. Heading for the direction of the trap, unknown of the pitfall that was in its direction, the group looked on with anxiousness, hoping for success. As Cercis stepped on the tarp, the Plant Elemental begun to trip over the slope in the pitfall and tumbled into the hole with its tree appendage on its back breaking and making it land upside onto its shell.

"Alright, we got the bastard!" Bernard exclaimed as the group rushed out of the bushes and looked down into the hole to see the giant carnivorous turtle-like beast struggle and squirm to get up. "Okay, now I just gotta call out Formosa and- Hey!" Bernard continued as he reached under his shirt in an attempt to call out Formosa again until he noticed Vulp whipped his tail out and grabbed Bernards wrist to stop him.

"Bad idea!" Corvus exclaimed as Vulp nodded his head in agreeance.

"What do you mean "bad idea!?" We got it right where we want it! All I need to do is get Formosa out here and we can use the giant laser attack thing it can do to destroy this thing!" Bernard said with a tone that sounded like a combination of desperate and angry.

"That "giant laser attack thing" took all of your energy in Crocus, you passed out and the royal family had to help your ass! No one is here to help us so if you use the slimes big beam attack, there'll be no around to help you! There's no way I'm letting you do that to yourself if it doesn't work!" Corvus said as he flew up to meet Bernard at eye level.

"This is our best chance!" Bernard exclaimed loudly as Baurs continued to look at Cercis, who was starting to twist and turn on the ground as the tree appendage started to regrow on its backside.

"Ummm… Excuse me?" Baurs said as she attempted to catch the trios attention but to no avail.

"You've used up too much energy today! You might die!" Corvus shouted at Bernard as Bernard tried to get Vulps tail off of his wrist.

"I'd rather die destroying this thing than being its dinner!" Bernard screamed back as they continued to argue.

"Hello? Guys?" Baurs continued to try and get their attention as Cercis' tree appendage regrew and pushed him back up onto all fours as it leered up out of the hole in the direction of Bernard, Baurs, Vulp and Corvus. _"Guess I have one option left..." _Baurs thought as she was getting fed up with Bernard and Corvus ignoring her. "Hey morons!" She exclaimed loudly as Bernard and Corvus stopped arguing to look at her.

'"I am not a moron!"' Bernard and Corvus said in unison as they looked at the rock lizard before they noticed she was pointing her long rock tail down into the hole as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits turned their heads and noticed Cercis standing up. '"Crap!"' Bernard and Corvus exclaimed loudly as they noticed their foe was glaring at them angrily as numerous vines and flytrap tentacles came out of its back as Bernard picked up Corvus and Vulp and proceeded to dash away. As they ran, Baurs proceeded to dig a hole and attempt to escape as well.

_"Looks like my plan of having them help is backfiring- Wait... What's going on here?" _Baurs thought until she noticed a peculiar sight as she started to dig. Unlike before when she dug a hole, her body was moving much quicker than before and the earth was moving around the bottom of her feet to produce a hole much quicker, similar to wizards who use Diver Magic to dig holes in the ground at breakneck speeds. Continuing to dig and noticing the lightness of her body, it was as if Baurs had begun to swim within the ground itself to move around. _"Why do I feel so much... Different than before?_" She thought as she continued to move underground away from her enemy and in the direction the others ran.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 5:16 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Back at the campsite, Bernard stood around pacing haphazardly as Corvus and Vulp looked at him while sitting on one of the tree logs that was around the firepit.

"Okay, I got a new plan! We take all the crappy food we have and then we lay it out as bait! The monster will get sick like we almost did and if he swallows all of it, it'll keel over and die!" Bernard said erratically as Corvus and Vulp looked at eachother as they realized how terrible Bernards plan was.

"But if we do that, we'll run out of food." Corvus stated bluntly as Bernard bit down on his lip and started to scratch his head.

"Well fine then! What do you suggest we do!? And where the green hell is Baurs?!" Bernard screamed as he violently flailed around and looked for Baurs around the campsite.

"I suggest you should sit down and relax, get some energy back for your heart ticker and then come up with a plan when you aren't freaking out!" Corvus exclaimed loudly as Vulp nodded in agreeance.

"How can I not freak out?! Look!" Bernard shouted as he pointed towards the sun, going down over the horizon. "The sun is still up and that thing is still looking for me and wants to digest me in its toxic gas spewing, creepy tentacled ridden body!" He exclaimed in a rant as he sat down on the log opposite of where Vulp and Corvus was sitting.

As Bernard continued to scratch his head as he tried to think, Vulp walked off of the log he was on next to Corvus and tried to lay on Bernards lap again but Bernard pushed him off.

"Not now Vulp!" Bernard said in an agitated tone as Vulps ears dropped in a sad way as Corvus looked at Bernard with aggravation.

"Hey! Don't be like that to him, he is just trying to help calm your dumb ass!" Corvus exclaimed, defending Vulp.

"I'm not trying to be an ass but I can't think like this!" Bernard continued to scream as he put his hands on his face.

"Like what?... In fear?" Corvus said as he looked in Bernards eyes as he took his hands off his face.

"...I'm not scared..." Bernard said with a twitch in his eyes.

"You are afraid. That's the reason your plans are going poorly. You can't concentrate because the only thing on your mind is the possibility of that stupid beast getting you... That it?" Corvus theorized as Bernard stood up and faced another direction from where Corvus and Vulp was looking at him.

"I'm not afraid! Okay!" Bernard said with an angry tone as he refused to show his face to the Celestial Spirits.

"It's okay to be afraid!" Corvus shouted at him.

"I am not afraid of that thing! I am- Ahhhhh!" Bernard shouted until he noticed something appear by his feet and he screamed at the top of his lungs as he fell backwards onto his butt and put his arms up over his head in fear as he tried to get away from what he saw.

Looking where he screamed, Corvus and Vulp noticed a hole start to form as Baurs had returned as she stuck her large rock head out from a hole in the ground. Glancing to the side to see Bernard in a seated position with his eyes closed and looking as if he was about to tear up, Baurs looked forward at the Celestial Spirits.

"Did something happen while I was gone?" Baurs stated in her usual calm tone as Vulp and Corvus looked at her with annoyance.

"Oh nothing at all, the kid that just makes that kind of position whenever he is alone with us..." Corvus said with an angry yet sarcastic tone as he pointed at the obviously terrified Bernard.

"Ahhh I see." Baurs said as if she took what Corvus said seriously. "I was going to say, you look scared." She said as she looked in Bernard direction.

"...It's because I am..." Bernard said as he pulled his arms down and looked down at the ground with tears in his eyes as Corvus and Vulp looked at him with concern.

"Crap, kid..." Corvus said as he scratched the back of his head with his wing.

"That thing is not after you two…" Bernard said as he looked at the Celestial Spirits with a scared expression on his face. "And it just hates you bugging it to get it to stop." He said as he looked at Baurs. "It wants to eat me! And I can't concentrate on an idea that could possibly work to stop it before something worse happens!" Bernard exclaimed loudly as he wasn't sure what to do at this point.

"...Something worse?" Corvus said with confusion as Baurs and Vulp looked at Bernard panting heavily.

"...Earlier when it defeated Formosa... I noticed it looked up at the sky and saw the barrier Camilla put up..." Bernard explained.

"Okay? So?" Corvus said, still confused.

"I got to thinking... What's going to happen if we survive the remaining time here? When we get off this rock when the barrier goes away?" Bernard said with a fearful tone. "We don't know if anybody from the guild is going to show up to see me or they just want me to walk home myself because it's not very far from Hemlock."

"Okay? And?" Corvus said unsure of what Bernard was getting at.

"...What are the odds that Cercis follows us home...?" Bernard said in a worried tone.

"...Wait, isn't that a good thing?! Everyone in Psycho Circus can stop it!" Corvus said as he thought he came up with a sound solution as Bernard shook his head, signifying a negative response.

"This thing wakes up in the dead of morning as soon as the sun arises, that's when the barrier collapses in about two days. We don't know if anyone is going to be here for us on that last day and we might have to go back ourselves where it's going to take the opportunity to follow us back to a village filled with people..." Bernard explained as he stood up and walked over to the firepit and looked at the trio of creatures with a terrified look in his eyes.

"...The town would basically be a buffet for it..." Corvus said as he came to a realization as to what Bernard meant as Vulp widened his eyes in shock.

"If we can't figure out how to kill this thing before the barrier collapses, it might not matter if we make it back to town before it finds me... It might just eat everyone else instead..." Bernard said in a despair ridden tone as he sat on the log.

"But-but what about the guild?! The hot chick, the big guy?! They could help stop it, right?!" Corvus said in a tone similar to Bernards.

"By the time they could help, the creature could have already started to devour some people... And I don't want a single casualty..." Bernard said as he looked deep into Corvus' eyes as Corvus saw the look of seriousness and fear on his face.

"If I may interject...?" Baurs said as she pulled herself out of the hole in the ground she dug.

"What? What could you possibly add to this right now?" Corvus said with annoyance as Vulp tried to help calm Bernard down by rubbing his back with his tail.

"Excuse me but I have something I would like to ask of Mr. Bernard." Baurs said as she looked at Corvus before turning her head towards Bernard as he looked up at her with an upset look in his eyes.

"What?" Bernard said with a depressed tone, still unsure of what to do.

"The crow and the fox uses the power from your Lacrima in your chest, as does that slime beast you have, correct?" Baurs asked as Bernard raised his eyebrow, confused as to why she was asking this of him now.

"Yes?" Bernard said with confusion.

"I already answered that question!" Corvus exclaimed in frustration.

"And the power inside of you, the Lacrima absorbs all of it to be powered correct?" Baurs continued to ask.

"Sorta... It's a "renewable energy" form of Lacrima, it has its own self-regenerating power source." Bernard explained as he looked at the rock lizard as she continued to question him.

"It has its own energy, yet you have been feeding it with your own?" Baurs questioned.

"Wait, what?" Bernard said confused.

"The rock in your chest has a permanent and constantly refueling energy source. And you say that it's also taking energy from yourself as well to operate? From the area of which you store your own power? That seems strange to me." Baurs said with curiosity as Bernard stared at her.

"What does that even mean?!" Corvus exclaimed in confusion as he looked at Baurs while Vulp looked at Bernard, his face changing from one of sadness to one lost in thought.

"Mr. Bernard has his own energy and energy from a constantly active and constantly regenerative Lacrima. Hasn't it ever struck you as odd he is using the magical power from his Lacrima to fuel you and the other two and not the magical power he has naturally?" Baurs explained as Bernards eyes widened.

"Wha-what?" Corvus said with confusion.

"Think of the Lacrima as a funnel of sorts, he has been transferring the power out through it but is only using the energy the Lacrima has. Every person has a theoretical "container" in their body where they store magical energy to use magic, do they not?" Baurs explained as Bernard continued to stare at her. "Then in another sense, Mr. Bernard, wouldn't this Lacrima being in you count as only "one" magical container?" She continued.

"But... But the thing has been taking out my..." Bernard stammered as Vulp and Corvus looked on, still confused.

"Can someone just explain this crap already?!" Corvus shouted as Bernard turned towards the Celestial Spirits.

"It's only sucking the energy because its being stockpiled and filtered out to the Lacrima to perform "above a capable capacity."' Baurs said as she turned back towards the hole in the ground.

"My Lacrima was only sucking energy out of me so it could work well above how it needs to work... Because I wasn't using it in the first place..." Bernard said as he talked to himself. _"Which means if I funnel out the energy from the other location through the Lacrima and not the Lacrimas energy itself... It won't effect me any normally than a regular wizard would... And then I fall back on the Lacrima as a reserve without the energy in it affecting my heart..."_ Bernard thought as his jaw dropped in surprise as he walked over towards where Baurs was.

"Kid?" Corvus said as he and Vulp noticed Bernard had took his arms and wrapped them around the Earth Elementals large body.

"Oh thank you, thank you! You giant dino-looking thing made of gravel!" Bernard said with a smile on his face and tears in his eyes.

"Well, that's out of nowhere..." Corvus said with confusion as Vulp looked on with an almost jealous expression.

"I wouldn't thank me just yet." Baurs stated calmly as she noticed Bernards hand glowing slightly on her body.

"Little explanation here, finally? Please?" Corvus said as he flew over to Bernard with Vulp following the crow.

"All this time Corvus... I've been feeding you, Vulp and Formosa energy from the Lacrima... but only the Lacrima." Bernard said as he grabbed Corvus and perched him on his shoulder as he bent down to pet Vulp. "Baurs made me realize something. If I'm only using energy from the Lacrima, what about the other energy I have? From my own natural container?"

"You mean your own energy?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow. "But I thought you said the Lacrima was sucking out all of your power to work?"

"It was and is, but it only needs its own power to operate..." Bernard explained as he looked at the firepit. "Look here, let's say this firepit is my Lacrima and its lit, and lets pretend it just doesn't go out. If it won't go out, why would I need to put more logs on it?" He asked of the crow as he thought for a second.

"...You don't have to put more logs on it, you can save the logs for another purpose." Corvus thought as he went along with the analogy.

"If I start using my own power, instead of the Lacrimas power... We all could fight Cercis at once... You, Vulp, Baurs and even Formosa... No restrictions." Bernard said as he looked at Corvus, eyes widening and a smile forming on his beak.

"And me and Vulp, we might not even have to worry about power output!" Corvus exclaimed in surprise.

"Possibly!" Bernard said with a smile as Vulp looked on with a happy expression.

"However, one last question." Baurs said as it caught the trios attention. "Do you know how to properly use your own energy? And gain more from the natural environment around you?"

"...No... I don't..." Bernard said as he looked down in realization that he doesn't know how to do that.

"Then I may be of service..." Baurs said as she looked at Bernard.

"How?" Corvus said.

"I am an Elemental, my body is comprised of magical spirits, I know how to harness the magical energy of what I am currently capable of doing. Tomorrow, no planning, we are going to practice and teach Mr. Bernard how to use his magical power." Baurs explained as she turned around. _"Well... Currently capable until I can see what this young man can do with more energy at his disposal..."_ She thought as she went back inside her hole as night time had arrived.

* * *

**Anybody ever been bitten by a snapping turtle? It's not fun... And I guess neither is being chased around by a giant plant monster turtle either. After several failed attempts to get the edge over Cercis, all seemed hopeless for Bernard and the Celestial Spirits as even the Etherious Demon slime, Formosa, was defeated by the Plant Elementals abilities. Fearing for his life and the lives of the people in Hemlock should Bernard leave the island, there was no plan he could come up with or help he could receive that would lead to his success until the Earth Elemental, Baurs, helped Bernard realize something he had never thought about before; he has the energy to spare but he just wasn't using it correctly. Two days left on the island to defeat Cercis before Bernard leaves, can he learn how to harness his latent magical powers in time or is he destined to become food for a hungry monster? We'll see... Next time on Menagerie!**

**Author's note (Hello, it's me. Thank you for reading as always.) **


	26. Chapter 26

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 9:00 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Sticking his head out from a tree to scope out the surrounding land, Corvus looked around for any signs of Cercis to see if they had a good amount of distance from him.

_"So far so good... No sign of the bastard."_ Corvus thought as he proceeded to flap his wings and flew back down to the ground to area where his comrades were. "Good news, no sign of the walking flower bed. How's it going here?" The crow asked as he approached Vulp and Baurs who were looking in the same direction.

"That's good to hear. However, the problem is still at a standstill." Baurs said as Corvus joined the duo in looking at the same thing.

In front of the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental was Bernard, half-naked while only wearing his pants and his beanie on his head. No shoes and no shirt. Sitting cross-legged in front of a tree, his eyes were closed and his hands slightly lifted in the air to appear as if he was meditating.

"Ooooommmm… Ooooommmm..." Bernard muttered on repeat as he continued to sit with his eyes closed.

"The hell is he doing?" Corvus said with confusion as he and Vulp turned their heads to look at Baurs.

"After last night, with me telling him that he has to use his own power to defeat Cercis, I suggested he try mediation to build up power." Baurs explained as she continued to stare at Bernard.

'"Build up power?" Are you sure? Because I don't feel anything different about him." Corvus said as he and Vulp turned their attention back towards Bernard.

"Despite me saying that, I still feel no change within him." Baurs said. "The flow of any power dwelling deep inside his body is still being channeled into the Lacrima where his heart is, the place where it's not necessary. With meditation, I assumed the energy from within would fill to the brink of his container and then he would let out a massive pile of energy but it appears I am wrong." She said as she looked at the Celestial Spirits.

"You want him to let out a massive pile of energy? How does that help? I thought you said he was supposed to be gaining "more" power, not have it all seep out?" Corvus questioned.

"He has tons of surplus magic within him, most likely due to some kind of connection to a powerful wizard I'd assume, but all of that energy is just combining with the Lacrimas energy to fuel his heartbeat. Ideally, it's not beneficial or practical to waste all of that energy on his heart when he could channel it in other ways, such as powering you two." Baurs explained as she looked at the Celestial Spirits. "I figured with this body exercise, he could gain a massive spike of energy from the combination of proper absorption of the magic molecules in the air coupled with the Lacrimas power plus his own internal power... Hence, "a massive pile of energy."' She continued.

"It just seems to me like he is sitting around half-naked mumbling." Corvus said as Vulp nodded in agreeance.

"Well, perhaps he is just not concentrating hard enough." Baurs stated as Corvus waddled over to Bernard as he got close.

"Kid! You concentrating?! Ignore me if you are!" Corvus shouted in Bernards ear, prompting Bernard to open his eyes and look at the crow with an angry expression.

"Shut up! I'm trying to mediate and I can't with you buzzing in my ear, you stupid pelican!" Bernard shouted angrily as he got close to Corvus.

"Who you calling a pelican, you beanie-wearing douche!" Corvus aggravatedly screamed back in response to being called something he was not fond of.

"Please, there's no time for fighting!" Baurs exclaimed as Vulp quickly moved forward and got between Bernard and Corvus before they continued to argue. "Mr. Bernard." She said, catching Bernards attention. "You've been mediating for how long now?"

"About thirty-five minutes..." Bernard said as he looked at Baurs.

"Have you felt any sort of changes to your magical energy?" Baurs asked with intrigue as Corvus and Vulp looked at Bernard.

"No... Still nothing." Bernard said with a disappointed tone.

"I suspected as much. What seems to be the trouble?" Baurs said as she continued to question Bernard.

"I don't know, it's just... Really hard to channel my magic. This is my first time trying to do it." Bernard said as he scratched the back of his head.

"What about all the times you have given energy to me and Vulp? Isn't that you channeling your magic?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't think so, most times I had given you guys power, I just stick my hand on you and the magic just comes out of me and gives you strength." Bernard said as he put his hands up.

"What about the massive liquid monster? Formosa, I believe you called it?" Baurs continued.

"Formosa feeds off Lacrima energy, I guess it's just the same thing and it's only listening because I have a Lacrima in me." Bernard said as he looked at Baurs.

"And the energy you are letting out is coming directly from the Lacrima and not from your internal power, correct?" Baurs continued as Bernard made a disgruntled look.

"Yes, we've been through this already. I got to stop using the Lacrimas power and just use my own... Easier said then done." Bernard said with an annoyed tone.

"You're telling me. If I could go back to the Celestial Spirit world, I could ask someone with better knowledge on this kind of subject but then I'd be stuck there." Corvus said as he shrugged his wings.

"I don't see how I am supposed to gain more power or even use the power I already have in two days. Some people take years to gain the power to use their magic properly, even children younger than me can do more than I can currently." Bernard said as he stood up and put back on his shirt and shoes.

"But like you said, we don't have years for you to practice gaining magic to defeat Cercis." Baurs said as she caught Bernards attention. "We have only have two days for you to gain the energy you will need to empower all of the creatures at your disposal to fight Cercis before it might attempt to head to the town from which you came." She stated with a serious tone.

"... Yeah, no pressure..." Bernard said as he scratched his head.

"She's got a point kid. We gotta kick it into high gear if we wanna destroy that thing and make sure we all get out in one piece." Corvus stated as he flew up to Bernard and perched himself on his shoulder.

"I have a question; were you able to concentrate?" Baurs asked as the trio of Bernard, Corvus and Vulp looked at the Earth Elemental.

"What do you mean?" Bernard said in response.

"Did you feel the magic in the air, the soil and the wind? Were you "at one" with nature? Or were you distracted by your own thoughts?" Baurs asked with all seriousness as Bernard had a drop of sweat form on his head.

"Good work being overdramatic..." Corvus said as he looked at Baurs before turning his attention towards Bernard. "Kid?" The crow questioned.

"...Okay... Maybe, I was a little distracted..." Bernard said embarrassingly.

"By what?!" Corvus shouted in surprise.

"...Stuff I wanted to do when I got back home...?" Bernard continued with embarrassment.

"Like?" Baurs said with intrigue as the creatures all stared at Bernard.

"...Well first, I want to punch Anatoli, Marlene and Pietro for locking me on this island..." Bernard said with a twitch in his eye.

"Who?" Baurs said with confusion at the unfamiliar names.

"They're friends of his, but he constantly can't stop claiming they bug him when all they want to do is spend time with him." Corvus said as he looked at Bernard with an unimpressed look in his eyes. "What else was on your mind?"

"...The pastry shop..." Bernard said casually as he looked at away from everyone staring at him.

"Seriously!? You're thinking about donuts and cookies at a time like this!?" Corvus exclaimed in annoyance towards Bernard.

"No!... I was thinking about brownies..." Bernard said awkwardly in his defense as Corvus put his wing on his face in disbelief.

"Anything else?" Baurs said as Vulp stared at Bernard with an unimpressed look in his eyes.

"...Camilla..." Bernard said embarrassed as his face turned red as Corvus and Vulps eyes widened in surprise.

"...Well, I can't fault you for that one." Corvus said with a snarky attitude.

"Hey! I'm not thinking about her like that!" Bernard said as he looked at Corvus.

"Who's this "Camilla" person?" Baurs said with confusion at the new name.

"She's a girl who-" Bernard was going to continue until he got cut off by Corvus.

"-Really wants him." Corvus said with a smirk as Bernard looked at Corvus with an angry glare.

"That's not funny Corvus!" Bernard said as he swung his arm to get Corvus off his shoulder as the crow flew into the air to dodge Bernards swing.

"Not my fault she enjoys sticking her tongue in your mouth! Hehehe!" Corvus said with a chuckle as Bernards face lit up like a tomato in response.

"Th-th-that's not what I was thinking about!" Bernard stammered as he pointed angrily at Corvus.

"I see." Baurs said as Bernard, Corvus and Vulp turned their heads in surprise.

"See what?" Bernard said with concern.

"You are distracted by your desire to see your friends and your own hunger for food and your mate." Baurs stated as Bernard looked at her with a crazed look.

"They're not my friends! I am not that hungry and Camilla is not my mate!" Bernard shouted angrily as he looked at Baurs.

"Pfff! Bahahahaha!" Corvus laughed as he fell out of the air onto the ground and rolling around in the dirt from the hilarity of what Baurs said.

"Be that as it may, it's distracting you." Baurs stated bluntly as Corvus stopped laughing and Bernard softened his facial expression back to normal. "These thoughts that you are having is making it more difficult for you to focus on what you need to do and that's gain more power. Something deep down inside of you is preventing you from concentrating." She continued as Bernard scratched the back of his head.

As she finished speaking, a large growling noise could be heard and stomping that was approaching the location the group was in, prompting everyone to turn their heads in the direction of where it was coming from.

"Crap! It's coming!" Bernard exclaimed as Corvus and Vulp looked at Bernard and Baurs.

"We gotta move! And fast!" Corvus said as Vulp nodded in agreement.

"Right! Come on!" Bernard said as everyone rushed through the trees to a different location before Cercis could find them.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 10:16 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

As Bernard and Vulp ran behind a tree in the forest, Corvus flew overhead and landed in the tree they stopped at as Baurs stuck her head out from the ground and looked up at the trio.

"Think we lost it?" Bernard said as he looked back from the tree.

"Yeah, I think so." Corvus said as he looked down at the others.

"This situation isn't ideal." Baurs said as she caught the trios attention. "We won't make any progress in getting Mr. Bernards magical energy to a point of usage if we have to keep running away from Cercis." She continued.

"We know already Baurs. You bringing that up isn't helping the situation any better." Bernard said as he sat down on the ground as Vulp approached him, checking on the young man to see if he was well.

"With the amount of power at my and Vulps disposal, it's not like we can hold off the big guy ourselves and the kid needs his energy to even get the big slime freak to even be of use." Corvus explained as he sat in the tree above the others.

"We know that already too Corvus. Seriously, is everyone just going to be repeating themselves today?" Bernard said disgruntled as he looked up at Corvus.

"If it was possible to restart this day over and over, it would be useful for us." Baurs said bluntly as Corvus looked at her with annoyance.

"I wouldn't like a day like this to be on repeat, you weird rock lizard!" Corvus said loudly as more stomping could be heard approaching where the group was. "Oh damn it!" The crow said with annoyance.

"Damn it Corvus! You're shouting isn't helping!" Bernard shouted as he stood up and began to run into the woods with Vulp once again as Baurs dug back into her hole with Corvus flying behind.

"Hey, it's not my fault the weird gravel dinosaur can't stop saying dumb stuff!" Corvus shouted as he flew in the direction the others were running.

"It's totally your fault!" Bernard screamed as he ran through the bushes.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 12:28 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Reaching the shore of the island, Bernard and the Celestial Spirits had arrived as Baurs had emerged from the ground once again. Bending forward to try and breath, Bernard fell down to the ground to recuperate.

"Did we... Lose it?" Bernard said between breathes.

"I guess so, I don't hear the stomping getting any closer." Corvus said as he flew down to where Bernards downed body was as Vulp looked at Bernards face before moving his tail and placing it under Bernards head to use as a pillow.

"Ahhh… That feels nice..." Bernard said soothingly as he enjoyed the softness of Vulps tail.

"Mr. Bernard, do you have any ideas of what to do?" Baurs said as she approached Bernard as he looked up from the ground to look at her.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Bernard said as he was unsure of what to do.

"Well that's helpful..." Corvus said with annoyance as he waddled towards the lakeside and noticed Bernards old fishing lines still where they left them. "Nice to see those fishing lines still aren't catching anything." The crow said as he looked out at the water.

"This is good that we are near the water." Baurs said as the others turned towards her. "Cercis had sucked up fish from the water awhile ago but now it doesn't believe there is a reason for it to come over in this direction. We should be relatively safe here." She continued as Bernard sat up from Vulps tail.

"Seriously... You know, you could have mentioned that sooner!" Bernard said with annoyance.

"You never asked." Baurs said calmly as Corvus put his wing on his face in annoyance.

"Your whole "calm and formal" routine is really starting to piss me off..." Corvus said with a twitch in his eye as he looked at the Earth Elemental.

"...Hmmmm…" Bernard mumbled as he looked out at the water.

"What's up?" Corvus asked as Vulp and Baurs looked at him.

"It might not be anything but if I remember correctly, I've heard of an old meditation technique where someone sits in water." Bernard said as he stood up. "What have we got left to lose?" He continued as he shrugged.

"Wait... I've heard of that trick. It's not sitting in water, it's sitting under a waterfall." Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"And last I checked around this patch of land, there isn't a waterfall flowing down a mountain around here." Bernard stated bluntly as he looked at Corvus.

"It's worth a try, regardless." Baurs said as she spoke up.

Following the words from her mouth, Bernard proceeded to take off his shirt and shoes but now also took off his pants and beanie and was now standing around in only his underwear; a pair of blue striped boxer shorts. Practically naked, the Celestial Spirits looked at him with confusion as he walked over to the water.

"You know, I bet if Camilla was here, she would be loving this. Hehe." Corvus joked as Bernard walked into the water.

"Shut up!" Bernard said as he turned around towards Corvus.

"Mr. Bernard, please. Calm your emotions and concentrate." Baurs said with a serious tone to get Bernard to be rational.

"Ugh... Fine..." Bernard said with aggravation as he tried to calm down and sat in the water, the surface up to his neck. _"Okay... Just need to relax and try not to think... Let the energy flow into me... and then push it out."_ Bernard thought to himself as he closed his eyes.

_"Really hope this works."_ Corvus thought as he looked at Bernard in the water.

_"Be calm... Silent... God damn it, Anatoli needs to be slapped for hitting me with his stupid ball that one- No! No! Calm down! Gotta be calm, gotta be calm... Marlene seriously needs to stop crying every single time someone mentions her tongue, it's not that bad all things consid- Damn it! I can't think about that right now!" _Bernard thought as he struggled to remain calm when he should be meditating.

As Bernard sat in the water and tried to clear his mind, the creatures noticed as he was sitting down that his facial expression was changing from a normal face to one that was proceeding to get more and more disgruntled and annoyed.

"He appears to be having more problems." Baurs said aloud as Corvus and Vulp nodded in response.

_"Damn it... They always keep asking to hang out with me when I just don't want to... Camilla keeps trying to butter me up with the whole "sweet routine" so I become the guildmaster and leave everything for me to deal with while Pietro pushes me around and locks me on a damn island and then my damned father doesn't show up for hours so he can goof off and then it's just bothering and bothering and bothering!" _Bernard thought as he quickly stood up from the water, surprising the creatures. "Damn it! Stop trying to be nice to me!" Bernard screamed as he yelled towards the barrier covered sky.

"Whoa kid! Calm yourself!" Corvus said as he flew over to Bernard to meet him at eye level. "What are you shouting about?!" The crow said.

"It's... Nothing..." Bernard said as he panted heavily as he wiped the water from his eyes.

"I apologize for saying this but I don't think it's "nothing."' Baurs said as Vulp quickly moved forward to see how Bernard was.

"You promised; "no more secrets." I want to know and I want to know what's wrong now!" Corvus shouted towards Bernard as he just looked at the angry crow with a tired expression.

"...I hate the fact they like me..." Bernard said with a tired expression as he sat back in the water. "I hate the fact they still look at me like I'm their friend..." He said with a depressing tone as the Celestial Spirits looked at him with concern.

"Kid, come on... Now who is the one repeating themselves?" Corvus said.

"It doesn't matter! I don't understand it!" Bernard said as he quickly stood up. "I just don't get how they can possibly look at me and don't see me for the trash human being I really am!" He screamed as he put his hands on his head in a disturbed fashion as Vulp turned his tail into a pair of furry hands and put them on Bernards shoulders to calm him down.

"Kid, calm down!" Corvus screamed.

"I can't calm down! How can I!?" Bernard shouted once again as he sat back down in the water again. "I can't stop thinking about this crap! Everyone wants to spend time with me and I'm... I'm..." Bernard said until he started stammering and stuttering as tears started to come out of his eyes as he looked at the water. "I'm an asshole who can't treat my own damn friends like they're people..." He said as he started to break down in the water as he put his hands over his eyes as the tears continued to flow.

"...Vulp!" Corvus shouted as he looked at Vulp who proceeded to nod in response. Lifting the furry hands off Bernards shoulders, the fox combined them into one slightly large open palm and swung it at Bernards face, smacking him hard.

"Blargh! Hey, that freaking hurt!" Bernard exclaimed in aggravation until he noticed the serious expressions on the face of Corvus and Vulp.

"Enough!" Corvus shouted as he got close to Bernard, who was taken back by the sudden seriousness the Celestial Spirits were giving him. "Stop acting like a psychopath and listen to me! We're not going to let you freak out and clam up, you got that!? You need to calm yourself down and get stronger so you can help us defeat that thing! You will be food if you don't!" The crow stated with a serious tone as Bernard pressed his lips quiet as he listened. "You can do this!" Corvus exclaimed as he put his wings on Bernards shoulders as he looked at the crow.

"I... I..." Bernard stuttered, not knowing what to say anymore.

"...Hey... Come on..." Corvus said as he put his wings around Bernards crying state in a hugging manner with Vulp joining in and nuzzling himself against him to try and give him some form of reprieve. "I can't guarantee this but I might know a little bit of the reason why they want to spend time with you. And it's something you already know..." Corvus said in a comforting manner as Bernard looked at the crow.

"I know..." Bernard said with a sorrowful expression.

"It's because they like you... Just like me and Vulp, we like you a lot too..." Corvus said with an earnest tone. "You gotta learn to forgive yourself because no matter how much you tell yourself that you don't deserve their friendship or their compassion... It's not going to convince them to look at you as anything other than their friend and guildmate... Regardless of the whole "punishment" thing, they want to spend time with you and they want you to get off this stupid island." The crow continued with a confident and reassuring tone.

"But-" Bernard said a look that lacked confidence before Corvus cut him off.

"No "buts." Come on kid... You can do this..." Corvus said as he looked at Bernard.

Flapping his wings, Corvus proceeded to get out of the water and back to dry land as Bernard turned his face towards Vulp. Vulp, still close to Bernard, proceeded to lick his face in a show of affection before walking away back to dry land to join Corvus and Baurs as the Earth Elemental looked at the Celestial Spirits.

"Is everything alright?" Baurs asked with interest.

"Who knows. Only one way to find out." Corvus said as he and Vulp looked at Bernard as Bernard sat in the water once more, the surface up to his chin once again.

_"Okay... You can do this... You can do this..."_ Bernard thought to himself as he tried not to focus on his personal problems. Letting loose of his demons, Bernard took a deep breath and calmed his nerves as he sat in the water. _"Think of the air... Think of the water... Think of nature..."_ He thought as he continued to breath.

As Bernard sat in the water, suddenly, the water begun to move slightly as Bernards Lacrima pacemaker begun to glow brightly, much more prominently than ever before. As it glowed, energy started to glow from Bernards body as the water around him begun to glow slightly from the energy seeping out of his body.

"What is going on?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow as he and Vulp looked at the water glowing.

"He is letting loose some of the energy within him. The energy that's his own, not the Lacrima." Baurs said as she looked at Bernard as the Celestial Spirits looked on in awe.

As Bernard continued to let loose energy, something had begun to float up from out of the water next to Bernard as it floated downstream and knocked into Bernards face, breaking his concentration as the water stopped glowing.

"Hey! What the hell!" Bernard shouted as he opened his eyes and looked to his side at what bumped into his face.

"Oh damn it kid! You almost had it!" Corvus exclaimed loudly as he looked at Bernard in the water.

"No. It's alright." Baurs said as the others looked at the rocky lizard-like creature. "Mr. Bernard, if you could, do you think you could do what you just did again?" She asked as Bernard looked at her.

"I don't know, maybe?" Bernard said as he stood up and grabbed what hit him in the face. "But first, what is this thing?" He said as he looked at what hit him.

Looking over it, it appeared to be a rock covered in a piece of paper with words on it. Pulling the parchment off the rock, Bernard looked over the piece of paper with confusion.

"Well, I guess that's the good news then?" Corvus said as he looked at Baurs and Vulp. "Kid might have finally figured out how to use some of the energy from inside of him instead of the ticker." The crow said with a moderately relieved tone.

"I don't know though, we won't be certain until we begin our battle with Cercis." Baurs said with a tone of seriousness as she turned away from the others as she walked off towards the forest.

"Hey, where are you going?" Corvus said.

"To find Cercis." Baurs said as she continued to walk before Corvus and Vulp got in front of her.

"Whoa! We can't rush off to fight a monster to the death without any plans!" Corvus exclaimed in surprise at Baurs desire to rush on to fight.

"Be that as it may, we must move it as we are running out of time." Baurs said calmly as she tried to move forward with the Celestial Spirits still standing in her way.

"No! We need to form a plan after we are sure he can do this more than once!" Corvus exclaimed as Bernard stopped attempting to look at the paper that was on the rock to look at the arguing creatures.

"Will both of you shut up!" Bernard shouted as he caught their attention.

"Sorry- Wait, what's that you got there?" Corvus said as he looked over at Bernard with the paper in his hand as Vulp approached Bernard in the water.

"It's that paper I found on the bridge to the island that Pietro left me. The one that says; "Time to calm down."' Bernard said as he looked at the paper.

"That's still here? I thought that would have washed away by now?" Corvus said as he flew over and perched on Bernards shoulder.

"Wait... What the …" Bernard said with confusion as he started to rub his thumb over the note.

As he rubbed his thumb, Bernard started to notice more words forming on the paper as he failed to have to noticed prior that the previous placed words on the paper were at an odd angle. As he continued, Bernard and Corvus confusingly stared at more of the words that kept being formed.

"What's it say?" Baurs asked as Vulp looked on with an interested look.

"Well... Not what I was expecting..." Corvus said with surprise.

"It says; '"Time to" man up, Lil Bern. You can't remain "calm" in the world of wizards when every day is a battle. If your best asset is your head, why not knock it "down" and aim there?"' Bernard said confused.

'"Aim down" where? The head isn't down... Well, not the same head I'm thinking he is thinking of but you get what I mean." Corvus said as his words trailed off to a weird perverse rant as Bernard started to think.

"This is a waste of time, we need to find and destroy Cercis before nightfall approaches and he goes into his slumber yet again!" Baurs stated loudly as Corvus and Vulp looked at the Earth Elemental.

"Hey listen lady boulders! We're trying to think here!" Corvus said as he flew off Bernards shoulder as he continued to think.

_'"Aim down..." It's a plant monster... Which means..." _Bernard thought as he looked up towards the sun. _"If it's a plant... and it draws power from nature on top, it has to get its basic energy from somewhere else... "Slumber..."' _He continued to think before he turned his eyes over towards Corvus, Vulp and Baurs arguing as he rushed out of the water over to the creatures. "Baurs!" Bernard exclaimed, catching the Elementals attention.

"Are you ready to fight?" Baurs questioned.

"No, but you just said something that interested me. You said "it slumbers" right?" Bernard questioned back. '"It" meaning Cercis, correct?"

"Yes?" Baurs said with confusion.

"If it sleeps at night when the suns down, it's at its strongest when the suns up." Bernard said as he came to a realization.

"Wait, you think so?" Corvus said with surprise as he looked at Bernard.

"Why would it need to sleep? It's not a normal animal, it's an Elemental. Baurs, do you sleep?" Bernard questioned the rock lizard.

"Only when I need to recuperate my own energy, I don't need to on a schedule." Baurs explained.

"But Cercis might... That's why we have been safe when nighttime approached. It goes to sleep somewhere on the island at night!" Bernard said as he came to a conclusion.

"Then... All we gotta do is fight it at night and we will have an advantage with Bernards new magic relocation!" Corvus exclaimed happily as Vulp made a similar happy expression.

"Problem though..." Baurs said as she caught the others attention. "I have tried before to attack Cercis during the night. When it goes into its slumber, it hides underground and changes its tree on its back to match the surrounding flora as a camouflage technique. Even at night, I am still weaker than it." She explained.

"Kinda like the one chameleon girl you are friends with." Corvus said to Bernard.

"Marlenes Camouflage Magic has a similar weakness though... If we find where Cercis goes when he slumbers, we still could get the drop on it... Hiding or no hiding, if we know where it goes, it doesn't matter where it hides." Bernard said with a serious look in his eyes.

"Then it looks like we gotta start hunting our hunter..." Corvus said with a ready look in his eyes as Vulp and Baurs looked into the woods.

"But first..." Bernard said, catching the others attention. "I need to get new clothes, I ain't fighting anything in my boxers." He said bluntly as he walked into the forest as the other creatures looked at him, dumbfounded by his statement.

"Seriously?! You ruined the cool mood we were trying to end the chapter with for a nude joke?!" Corvus exclaimed in annoyance as he, Vulp and Baurs followed behind Bernard.

* * *

**Well... Wasn't expecting that from Bernard given how the day has been for him, maybe it's a sign he starting to get better and is forgiving himself for the past? Who knows... Only he knows... Now with some minor training under his belt and learning (at least having a little idea how to) channel his internal magic through meditation and a pep talk from his friendly beasts at his disposal, Bernard and the creatures might stand a chance to defeat Cercis and make it off the island without risk. Armed with a plan and renewed motivation, they set off into the woods! To get a change of clothes! And then defeat the monster! Will nightfall be enough to give them an even playing field and what about Pietros note? Bit suspicious there was hidden words on it other than just a simple "Time to calm down" message. Thrills! Chills! And a battle begins! Next time on Menagerie! **

**Authors Note; (Hello, it's me and thanks for reading this chapter. Please keep reviewing, it always helps my motivation folks, see you next time.)**


	27. Chapter 27

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 7:04 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

With the sun going down and the moon appearing over the island at the end of Nereid Lake, the monstrous Elemental beast, Cercis, continued its search for its next meal; a certain young man sporting a beanie and magic pacemaker in his chest. Looking up towards the sky as the moon started to rise, the creature grumbled in annoyance as it stomped deeper into the woods, intent to slumber until the sun rises to begin the next day. As the beast moved, unbeknownst to it, was a small group of diverse individuals watching it.

"Found you, you freak of nature..." Corvus muttered as he, Bernard, Vulp and Baurs stuck their individual heads out from a bush as they watched the giant plant turtle move deeper and deeper into the woods.

"Thank goodness..." Bernard said as he looked at the monster with a sense of purpose.

"Are you alright?" Baurs asked as Bernard looked back to answer her.

"Yeah, I am fine. I'm just... Anxious." Bernard said as he turned back to watch Cercis as he stood up and walked out of the bush with the Celestial Spirits and the Earth Elemental following him quietly behind.

"So that note the moustache baldy left, it gave you a clue to what we should do?" Corvus asked as he flew next to Bernards head.

"Sorta. If this thing doesn't attack during the night, then it must need to sleep when the sun isn't up." Bernard said with a tone of insightfulness. Quietly hiding behind trees as they moved to not alert Cercis, they followed the beast to a clearing with a small amount of trees.

Cercis, looking around one last time before it slumbered, attempted to see if it could spot Bernard one last time but to no avail as it growled before placing its legs deep into the ground. The legs burrowed far into the ground as its body sunk lower and lower as the tree on its back took root into the ground before Cercis' primary body was no more and all that was left was a tree sticking out of the ground.

"Hey, Baurs… You said you have searched around for Cercis during the night before, haven't you?" Bernard asked of the Earth Elemental as he and the creatures stuck out from behind a tree.

"On and off, unfortunately. There were nights I was damaged too much from combat with Cercis that I needed to rest and heal and there were nights I dug around to try and find where it went but failed to do so because I was too busy trying to dig pathways to where it was below." Baurs explained.

"So what your saying is; you didn't bother to look around up here and follow the acid spewing pile of daisies?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"Sometimes I was damaged too much to go around up here." Baurs continued to explain as Corvus put his wing on his face in annoyance as Vulp looked on with Bernard at the tree where Cercis planted itself.

Getting out of the bushes, the group proceeded to move to where Cercis was hiding in the ground with its tree sticking out. Staring at the tree up and down, Bernard looked with intrigue as Baurs, Corvus and Vulp looked on.

"So what's the plan here kid?" Corvus asked as he flew over and landed on Bernards shoulder as Bernard looked on in thought. "Want me to start a nice forest fire with this tree and a little bolt of lightning?" The crow said with a smirk as he started to spark up a little.

"No." Bernard said bluntly as he continued to ponder his next move.

"I believe we should, how they say, "strike while the iron is hot?"' Baurs said as Corvus and Vulp looked at the Earth Elemental, confused.

"You actually know that term?" Corvus said with surprise.

"Do I need to repeat how Elementals-" Baurs said until she was cut off by Corvus.

"I get it already! You are randomly intelligent because something, something "slot machine" blah blah blah!" Corvus muttered in annoyance towards Baurs as Vulp looked at Bernard, still contemplating.

"What was that about "slot machines?" What's a slot machine?" Baurs said in confusion.

"Oh for the love of... You know a term like "strike while the iron is hot," but you don't know a gambling machine even children know about?!" Corvus exclaimed loudly.

"Hey!" Bernard exclaimed as he got the two creatures to be quiet and listen to him. "Will you guys be quiet long enough for me to form an idea?" He questioned.

"Idea for what?" Baurs said.

"Obviously to strike back against the giant turtle." Corvus said with annoyance. "What's the plan?" The crow continued.

"Still thinking..." Bernard said as he looked at the tree connected to Cercis.

"I believe we should dig underground and strike it while it's still night time. Catch it off guard." Baurs said as she gave her suggestion.

"We should just unleash hellfire all over the bastard and set him on fire while we got the chance." Corvus said as he flew off of Bernards shoulder over to Baurs and Vulp.

"That could also work." Baurs said in agreeance.

"Nah." Bernard said aloud as he looked at the tree, catching the surprised looks of the creatures.

"What do you mean "nah?" This is a perfect opportunity to kill this thing before it wakes up and tries to eat you!" Corvus said loudly in surprise.

"That's not the plan we are going with." Bernard said as he put his hand under his chin and continued to think. "Hold on, I want to try something." He said as he walked away from the tree and got some distance of the creatures. "Okay, let's see... Vulp, think you can stay still right where you are? Corvus, Baurs, you move back somewhat."

Bernard, standing some feet away from Vulp, pointed two of his fingers from his right hand like an open finger gun towards the Fox Celestial Spirit. Focusing his energy from his body, Bernard started to release some of his energy as he pointed it, the energy travelled out of his body in a flowing line towards Vulp, hitting the fox. As the energy entered the fox, Vulp begun to feel refreshed and stronger.

"Hey! Look at that!" Corvus said with surprise as he saw that Bernard was using his magic. "You figured out how to use the whole transferring thing remotely?"

"Yeah, I think I might have after being in the lake earlier. Thought of it and then poof, it worked." Bernard said with no sign of fatigue.

"You appear to not be tired either." Baurs said with interest.

"Yeah, I haven't worked up a sweat like I used to either." Bernard said as he looked at his hand as Vulp approached Bernard and stood closely next him, nuzzling against his leg.

"Mind giving it a shot with me too?" Corvus said as he flew up into the air. Nodding his head, Bernard pointed his fingers at Corvus as he transferred some energy to the crow. "Wooo! That feels good!" Corvus exclaimed as he felt his strength be renewed from Bernards power.

"Okay, that's you two down..." Bernard said with a calm tone as he turned his attention towards Baurs.

"Do you mind trying that on me?" Baurs asked as the others looked at her with surprise.

"I understand the giant slime because it feeds off Lacrima and me and Vulp is a given, but why would the kids energy work on you?" Corvus questioned.

"Yesterday when we were running away from Cercis after the failed attempts to defeat it... I noticed something strange every time Mr. Bernard had touched my body in some capacity. I could feel something... Different." Baurs explained as Bernard approached her.

"How so?" Bernard said with curiosity.

"After you had touched me, I felt my body move at a speed that was unknown to me prior. I felt faster and lighter and I could feel the dirt below me start to feel like I could swim within it." Baurs continued to explain as Bernard looked with interest.

"Elementals don't get stronger, they stay at one set power level their entire existence correct?" Bernard asked of Baurs as she nodded in response. "...So you got stronger with a bit of my energy... How about a lot more?" Bernard said with intrigue as he stepped back and pointed his fingers at Baurs.

Transferring energy to her, Baurs started to feel like her large rock body was becoming lighter and feeling the same as the Celestial Spirits; stronger.

"Okay, let's see what you can do..." Bernard said as he stood back and pointed at a nearby tree with Corvus and Vulp standing next to him as Baurs assumed an attacking position.

_"I feel... Like something is welling up inside... And I can release it..."_ Baurs thought as she could feel power coursing through her body as she felt a torrent start to fill up within her as she pointed her head at the tree Bernard pointed at.

Opening her mouth, a large blast of muddy water had begun to expunge from out of her giant maw as the rush of dirty fluid had slammed with great force against the trees and caused a number of them to fall over and break apart. Looking on, Bernard made a moderately impressed expression as the Celestial Spirits just looked with surprise.

"Wow... So now you can spit mud?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"It would appear so." Baurs said with a drip of mud coming out her mouth as she used her large lizard tail to wipe her maw.

"That's good to know..." Bernard said with intrigue as he looked at Baurs before turning his head back towards Cercis' tree.

"Now that we know this, I think we can take the big turtle bastard! Let's go!" Corvus exclaimed as Vulp nodded in agreement.

"No, not yet." Bernard said as everyone looked at him again.

"Oh come on, you know how to constantly give us energy now and we know the big rocky lizard won't be dragging us down. Let's call out the big slime monster and start wrecking this thing!" Corvus said with vigor in his tone as he flew up off the ground.

_"Formosa... Hmmmm…"_ Bernard thought as he looked at the tree. "I think I have an idea." Bernard said aloud as he pressed on his heart Lacrima a few times as multicolored liquid begun to spew out from under his clothes as Formosa, the giant slime golem, had appeared once more.

"What's the idea?" Baurs said with interest as Bernard pointed his hand towards Formosa as energy transferred into its body as the creature started to move.

"Formosa... Go into the woods over there." Bernard said as he ordered the giant fluid golem to go into a bramble of woods as the massive golem stomped loudly over to the forest. "Ok now bend down a little bit so you can be covered by the leaves a bit better." Bernard ordered as Formosa ducked slightly to hide.

"Any reason the giant monster we have at our disposal just going to hang out while we fight?" Corvus said with confusion as he wasn't sure what Bernard wanted to do with it.

"It's part of the plan." Bernard said as he continued to think. "As for you three..." Bernard continued as he looked at the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental. "We don't plan on sleeping tonight..." He said with serious eyes as he started to stretch himself.

"Huh?" Baurs said in confusion alongside Corvus and Vulp making similar surprised expressions.

"We are going to practice some things. So no one is sleeping tonight." Bernard said with a serious tone as he looked at the creatures. "Not even me..." He continued.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 6:45 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

With the crack of dawn emerging over the island and the sun beating down its rays into the land, the tree connected to Cercis had begun to rise further and further out of the ground until the massive turtle shaped monster had emerged from the ground with thunderous anger in its eyes as the final day of Bernards private time on the island had arrived. As it looked around to get its bearings, Cercis suddenly felt the feeling of a small object hitting it in the side of the face as it looked down to notice a small rock had pelted it.

"Morning sunshine..." Said the voice of Bernard as Cercis raised its giant turtle-like head upward and saw the sight of its prey from the past couple of days sitting cross legged in front of a tree staring at it. With a grin of hunger and evil intent, the giant monster begun to slowly approach the young man sitting down several feet away. "You know, I wouldn't move that close to me if I was you. Your old friend has some things she wants to show you first." Bernard said while scratching his head.

As Cercis stopped moving, comprehending what Bernard said, the beast looked downward at the ground and saw a hole start to form in the ground as Baurs had emerged from the ground, looking at eachother. Cercis, a smirk forming on its face, as it looked at the rock lizard in the hole she dug, not expecting much.

"The black crow told me to pass this on to you; "suck it." Baurs said as she opened her mouth open and a large torrent of mud came shooting out and blasting Cercis in the face, pushing it back a few feet in surprise. Looking with anger and surprise on its face with mud dripping off, Cercis had several of its flytrap tentacles emerge from its shell and attempted to grab Baurs but the Earth Elementals body, powered by Bernards magic had become fast enough to dodge it by digging under ground and to a new spot behind the Plant Elemental, firing more shots of mud at the monster.

"I am over here!" Baurs said as she sprayed more mud at the monster as it turned around in surprise and fury with its old adversary now having the upper hand. Lifting its leg to try and slam on Baurs, the giant monster attempted to stomp on her but Baurs dug back under ground to another location nearby and continued to sling mud at Cercis, this action repeating several more times.

"Huh..." Bernard said to himself as he stood up, noticing Corvus flew down from the sky over to him.

"Looks like a game of "Whack a Mole."' Corvus said with a smirk as he looked at Cercis continue to fail to hit Baurs as she popped in and out of the holes she dug.

"So far so good." Bernard said as he looked on. "Okay, your turn to try that thing I thought up." He continued as he looked at the crow.

"Got it kid." Corvus said as he flew up overhead and begun to charge up red and white electricity on his body. Flapping his wings together as if to hold something with both of his wings, a ball of lightning had started to form between his wings as Corvus pitched the charged up lightning ball at Cercis, slamming into the tree appendage on its back as the electrical blast had rung through the body of Cercis. "Awwww yeah! I'm going to call that one my "Electric Grenade!"' Corvus exclaimed with a cocky attitude at his new move.

"Hey, what did I say about naming your moves?" Bernard said with a squint in his eyes towards the crow.

"Everyone has to know about the moves I am rocking!" Corvus said with a smirk as he noticed Cercis, frustrated and angry, had launched more of its tentacle flytraps towards the crow. "For example! Behold my "Shock Barrier!" The crow said with vigor in his tone as he charged up more electricity around his body and used it as a veil to cover over himself as the tentacles blasted away the tentacles before they could touch Corvus.

"Nice, that worked too..." Bernard said as he looked up at Corvus as Baurs continued to spray mud all over Cercis with agitation mounting on its face as it looked at Bernard. Bernard, a smile forming on his face, proceeded to wave at the creature in a mocking way as Cercis became more and more furious. Breathing in deeply, Cercis spewed out a cloud of toxic gas in the direction of Bernard.

"You got this kid?" Corvus said overhead as he noticed the acidic smog heading towards him.

"Pretty much. Vulp!" Bernard exclaimed as Vulp had appeared behind Bernard as the fox morphed his tail into a large fan-like object, flapping the poisonous mist back in the face of Cercis as some of the plant-formed skin on the beast started to make it melt somewhat into the ground.

"Huh, looks like my theory was right. The acid doesn't affect your state of matter naturally because you're an Elemental but with a bit of extra substances thrown in like mud and electricity, your composition is a bit off." Bernard said with a smirk as watched his handiwork as Vulp looked on with a smirk. "Baurs, get out of the hole and over here!" Bernard ordered as Baurs had dug one last hole in the ground nearby from Bernard and Vulp as Corvus flew back towards the group.

"This fine?" Baurs said with interest towards Bernard as he nodded.

"Okay, Vulp. Tendril your tail into all the holes and grab a bit of the thing." Bernard ordered as Vulp complied and reached his tendrilled tail into Baurs last hole in the ground and stuck out the tail from the holes and grabbed Cercis' legs and neck and pulled it down towards the ground, keeping it in place as it thrashed about covered in mud.

"Now then..." Corvus said with a smile as he perched himself on Bernards shoulder as Bernard pointed his right fingers at the woods. As he pointed, magical energy seeped out of him and into the trees as Cercis jerked its head in the direction of where Bernard was pointing as Cercis noticed a pulsating orb of green energy forming out of the trees.

"Formosa, move the bushes so the bastard can see you." Bernard ordered as Formosa moved its giant slimy claws out of the trees and pushed aside the foliage as its mouth was open and continued to draw energy from Bernards magic. "Formosa... Fire!" Bernard shouted.

From the mouth of the giant slime golem, the green pulsating orb of energy was unleashed in a massive beam of energy, firing forth and blasting into the downed Cercis, Vulp letting go of its legs and neck to avoid being hit by the blast. Overtaken by the wave of energy, the body of Cercis was burned into a crisp by the massive laser strike vaporizing its body into nothing and finally destroying their pursuer from the past few days.

"...Finally..." Bernard said with a sigh as he sat on the ground as Formosa melted its body down into mass and came over to Bernard, returning back to its home within the young mans Lacrima pacemaker. As Bernard sat, Vulp approached Bernard and nuzzled under his chin in a celebratory manner as the group had succeeded in finally destroying Cercis.

"I can't believe it's finally over." Baurs said as she looked on at the burning patch of leftover land where her enemy used to be.

"Bet you are happy, now you can go and do whatever you want with this patch of land now that the big predatory turtle is gone." Corvus said as he looked at the Earth Elemental.

"My purpose for being spawned was to defeat that monster." Baurs said aloud.

"And now it's gone." Bernard spoke up as everyone turned to look at him. "And now I can feel like I have nothing to worry- ...about." He continued until he looked up at the sky.

"What's up?" Corvus said with confusion as Vulp and Baurs also looked at Bernard. _"...And here I thought it was just going to disappear..."_ Bernard thought with a twitch in his eye.

"Literally." Bernard said with a worried expression as he looked up at the sky with the creatures all looking up and their eyes widening in surprise.

The barrier covering the island was now starting to crack and break like a mirror shattering. As it started to break and appearing to look like pieces were starting to fall, Bernard looked down at the monsters with wide eyes and a grim look on his face.

"Run!" Bernard shouted as he got up and ran into the woods.

"Oh crap!" Corvus exclaimed as he and the others rushed off with Bernard into the woods for cover.

* * *

**Oh god damn it fate, will you cut Bernard a break or not?! With Bernard having finally learned a new trick to remotely utilize his energy transfer as well as learning his power not only works on the Celestial Spirits but also the Earth Elemental, Baurs, Bernard used his resources and planning to his advantage and charged up the entire group into an assault on the giant turtle shaped Plant Elemental. With it finally defeated and Bernards final day on the island concluded, there is one problem left; a whole lot of glass-like barrier descending onto the island in shards. Better find a hiding hole and look out for the next chapter of Menagerie!**


	28. Chapter 28

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nereid Island, 7:55 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Along the pathway out of the town of Hemlock, a group of four individuals were walking with purpose in the direction of the small island at the end of Nereid Lake. With a look of concern on both of their faces, Anatoli and Marlene looked on at the pair walking in front of them on the path; Camilla, sporting a harsh glare in the direction of the person she was walking beside, and Pietro, who was casually ignoring the look that Camilla was giving him.

"Hey uhhh… Camilla, you might want to stop looking at Pietro that way. It's been nearly four days and your face might get stuck like that, you know?" Marlene said with a cautious tone as Camilla closed her eyes and sighed, her expression softening slightly.

"I know, I know... But still..." Camilla said with a calmer expression before giving a hard look towards Pietro yet again.

"Man..." Anatoli whispered to Marlene. "I haven't seen Camilla this agitated since we went out to find Bernie and bring him home." He whispered while rolling on his ball next to Marlene.

"Can you blame her? Pietro still won't tell her what the big deal was with leaving Bernard alone on that island these past few days. Or why he's so sure that nothing bad happened." Marlene whispered back.

"I can hear you two." Camilla said with an unamused expression as they all continued to walk with Marlene and Anatoli wincing in response to being caught gossiping. "Well Pietro." Camilla said as she spoke up to the silent large man. "You going to start talking now or what?"

"I have nothing to say at the moment." Pietro said calmly as Camillas expression grew more and more angry.

"Seriously!? It's been close enough to the damn time that barrier you made me put up is supposed to be kept standing and you still won't tell me why we had to leave Bernard and his pets there?!" Camilla shouted as the group stopped walking.

"Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with her on this one Pietro..." Anatoli said with a nervous expression as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Bernards going to run for the hills the moment that barrier collapses and then we are all back to square one with him..." Marlene said with concern as Camilla continued to stare at Pietro, expecting an answer.

"He won't run." Pietro said as everyone looked at his backside on the path.

"And how can you be so sure!?" Camilla exclaimed loudly. "I have been trying to make him feel welcome in Psycho Circus for close to two weeks now and you think four days locked on a small island is going to convince him to not go into hiding again?!" She continued to rant.

"No." Pietro stated bluntly. "Four days by himself on the island isn't going to change his mind about sticking around the guild. He is there with his crow and fox as well, remember?" He continued as the others looked at him with confusion.

"And just how is Corvus or Vulp going to make him feel fine with being around us?" Marlene said with a raised eyebrow.

"You'll see." Pietro said as he continued to walk with the others following behind with disgruntled expressions.

As they reached the bridge at the entrance to Nereid Island, the group of Psycho Circus wizards looked up at the massive structure that Camilla erected to keep Bernard and the Celestial Spirits inside. As they looked on, Camilla looked up and saw a smoke signal coming from inside the island.

_"Guess that's a campfire he set up..."_ Camilla thought as she looked at the island.

"Wow Camilla..." Anatoli said as he sat on his ball, catching Camillas attention. "You can really make a barrier this huge?" He said in wonder.

"It was a pain to put up to be honest. And if I knew what I know now, I wouldn't have put the damn thing up." Camilla said with a harsh tone in Pietros direction.

"Look, can we please stop fighting for a minute to check on Bernard? I'm already getting sick to my stomach at the idea of him staring daggers at us..." Marlene said nervously as Camilla and Anatoli agreed.

"Okay, I am going to dispel the- Huh?" Camilla said as she was about to put up her hands to dispel the barrier until she was cut off by the sight of Pietro putting his hand up to stop her.

"No need. I can do that." Pietro said calmly as Pietro placed his large clown-faced gold wrestling belt around his waist.

"What do you mean?" Anatoli said with confusion as Camilla and Marlene looked on.

As Pietro put his belt around his waist, magical energy started to appear from the belt as the clown faces eyes glowed brightly. With the magic permeating from it, Pietros body started to morph in size as the large round shape of his torso started to shift into a more buff state as the muscles in his body shifted into a massive bulging form. As the muscles of his body started to grow more and more jacked, his clothes begun to rip and tear until everything ripped apart and revealed his black singlet, black boots and knee pads under his clothes with the belt still around his waist.

"Why are you using your Max Muscle Magic right now?" Camilla said with confusion as the massive Pietro calmly walked towards the barrier.

"Giving Lil Bern some excitement before we pick him up." Pietro said as he cocked back his arm.

Extending forward with the maximum force of his belt invigorating him, Pietro punched his fist hard against the barrier dome around Nereid Island. Shortly after impacting against it, cracks and ripples started to form into it as a large crack begun to go up the side of which Pietro punched as the others eyes widened in shock at what he just did.

"What are you doing?!" Marlene said with surprise.

"How'd you break it like that with one punch!?" Anatoli said in shock.

"My barriers get weaker with time when they are erected for so long so his magic must have been strong enough to break through it- What the?!" Camilla explained before she looked up at the top of the barrier around the island and noticed the barrier begun to break off into shards of the panels that was used. "Pietro! Look at what you did! The barriers starting to crumble all over the island into spiked panels!" She said with outrage in her tone as she pointed at the roof of the barrier.

"That's the point." Pietro said calmly as the others looked at him.

"Wait a second..." Marlene said as Anatoli and Camilla looked at her. "If the shards are falling over the island then..." She continued as a grim look appeared on her face.

'"Bernard!"' Anatoli and Camilla said in realization of the dangerous situation that is now occurring as the barrier shards fell on the island. Attempting to run across the bridge to the island, the trio was caught by Pietro, who was preventing them to get onto the island.

"Wait! It's too dangerous for any of you to get on the island." Pietro said with a serious tone as he tried to stop the others. _"See you soon, Lil Bern..._" Pietro thought as he looked at his handiwork as the barrier continued to fall onto the island.

Meanwhile on the island, following their success at finally defeating the giant Plant Elemental, Cercis, a certain beanie-sporting young man and a group of creatures were running for their lives.

'"Ruuuun!"' Bernard and Corvus shouted in unison and dozens of spiked panels were falling down around them, slamming into the trees and slicing up the ground. Dodging out the way of the shards, Bernard and Vulp continued to run on foot as Corvus flew near the ground to try and avoid getting stabbed.

"Why the hell is this happening?!" Bernard screamed with tears in his eyes as he ran through the woods.

"Stupid barrier! I thought it would just disappear!" Corvus exclaimed loudly as Vulp continued to run next to Bernard as the blades continued to fall.

Looking ahead into the woods, the trio noticed a hole form as something burrowed past them up ahead as Baurs stuck her head out of the ground.

"Quick! Over here!" Baurs exclaimed as Bernard, Corvus and Vulp rushed towards the hole she made, hoping it would provide the cover they desperately desired.

"Crap! Crap! Crap! Wait! Vulp!" Bernard shouted loudly as they ran towards the hole. "Cut down that tree over the hole!" He ordered as Vulp turned his tail into a blade to chop down a tree close to the hole so that it would make for extra cover.

Jumping and diving into the hole, Bernard, Corvus and Vulp quickly cowered in fear as the tree blocked the hole as they waited to hear the impact of the shards piercing the ground. Looking up from their cowardly positions, they noticed blades started to pierce through the top of the cave that Baurs dug out.

"Well... At least they aren't stabbing us..." Corvus said with reluctance as the group continued to hear the shards fall towards the ground from beneath the earth.

"Haaa…." Bernard groaned as he sat in the dirt, breathing a sigh of exhaustion. "First, I don't get any sleep last night while we prepared for the damn fight, then the fight happens and now this crap with the barrier collapsing..." He complained as Vulp approached him to check on him.

"Guess all we can do is wait it out here." Corvus said as he looked upward as they continued to hear the shards fall.

"Looks like it... Oh yeah." Bernard said before he turned his attention towards Baurs. "Thanks Baurs, guess I owe you one." He said with a smile of relief towards the giant rock lizard.

"Yes. Yes, you do." Baurs said calmly as Bernard looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Huh?" Bernard muttered with surprise at Baurs sudden answer.

"What's that supposed mean?" Corvus said with equal confusion.

"I saved your life as well as assisted you in giving you the knowledge that you required to stand up against my enemy as well as followed your orders to the letter. In other words, it's your turn to do something for me." Baurs explained as Vulp and Corvus got up close to her.

"Hey, hey, hold up! The kid risked his butt to help you destroy that stupid giant plant turtle that you have been dealing with for months and you think you can just ask him to do you more favors?!" Corvus exclaimed angrily in Bernards defense.

"Whoa, hold on guys." Bernard said in an effort to quell any sort of infighting. "Baurs, mind me asking, say I agreed to do you a favor since you... "saved my life." What did you have in mind?" Bernard said with curiosity.

"Seriously?" Corvus said towards Bernard with concern.

"Yeah, let her speak." Bernard said as he looked towards the large rock lizard.

"Good. As the situation stands, Cercis has been destroyed and no longer will it destroy this land with its predatory nature which will also mean that the creatures that ran from this land will return in due time... But this also means, I am in a crisis that requires assistance." Baurs said.

"And that would be?" Bernard said curiously.

"I was born to fight that beast and now that it's gone, my purpose for existence is now being questioned internally." Baurs continued.

"Pardon?" Corvus questioned in confusion.

"She has nothing to do now." Bernard stated as the Celestial Spirits looked at him.

"Correct." Baurs said in agreeance.

"Now how do I fit in to this problem?" Bernard said with curiosity as he rubbed his chin.

"I seek a business deal." Baurs said as she and Bernard locked eyes.

"A "business deal?"' Corvus said with confusion.

"Yes." Baurs stated. "I have one desire personally. From within myself that I feel, after the few days, I have earned and as such, am seeking your compliance in negotiating." She continued as Bernard continued to listen.

"Okay." Bernard said.

"I desire the power that your Lacrima can give." Baurs stated as Bernard looked up at the roof of the cave and noticed the panels continued to fall. "In exchange for that power... I will provide service." She stated as Corvus and Vulp looked at eachother in surprise.

"Whoa, wait, you want to "work" for the kid?" Corvus said as he looked at Baurs with Vulp looking equally confused and surprised.

"In exchange for the abilities that he has given me that increased what I have at my disposal, I am willing to join this union of sorts and work towards continuing to have it." Baurs explained as Bernard looked at her with an unsure look.

"Well... What have you got to say about this kid?" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked at him.

"Uhhh… Well... I don't know what to say about this..." Bernard said as he was not sure what to respond with. "I mean... I am flattered by the idea but considering what I am already dealing with, I don- What?" He continued until he stopped when he noticed Corvus and Vulp were looking at him with concerned looks.

"Well, besides the fact she is a big fat lizard made of stone with no sense of humor, why can't we bring her along?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow as Vulp nodded.

"It's not that easy for me to decide, why do I have to decide this?" Bernard said bewildered.

"Because the freaky giant stone thing is asking to work for you in exchange for powers. It's almost no different than me or Vulp or the big slime in your rock." Corvus said.

"You guys are all different, our whole schtick here is out of necessity and Formosa is just pure circumstance. This... This is a willing offer..." Bernard said as he looked at everyone, completely unsure.

"Yeah but... Who knows, we did a pretty solid job out there earlier." Corvus said. _'"Necessity" huh...?" _The crow thought with concern as he looked at Bernard, noticing his hesitation.

"Yes, I get that already but it doesn't change the fact that you two and Formosa are inside the Lacrima in my chest, how the hell do we lug her around?" Bernard said as he thought about how it would be possible for him to carry around Baurs like he does with the other creatures.

"I might have an idea." Baurs said as she spoke up. "Please, stick up your hand." She requested.

"Okay?" Bernard said hesitantly as he lifted up his right arm as Baurs moved closer towards him.

Approaching Bernards hand, Baurs opened her mouth with her large stalagmite-like teeth sticking out and bit down around Bernards hand and wrist.

"Hiyaahhh!" Bernard screamed in surprise as Baurs bit slightly into Bernards wrist.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Corvus said in surprise as he and Vulp approached in confrontation.

"Wait! Wait, it... It doesn't hurt?" Bernard said as he noticed she wasn't biting into him anymore.

Suddenly, her body glowing in response, Baurs entire form and shape started to crumble and break down into smaller rocks like as if she was falling apart. Starting from her tail and working upwards towards her head around Bernards wrist, Bernard and the Celestial Spirits looked on in surprise as they noticed a bracelet made of stone had formed around Bernards right wrist, matching the color of Baurs body and sporting a sigil in the shape of Baurs triangle-shaped head.

"What the hell?" Bernard said as he looked at the bracelet that formed around his wrist.

Pressing down on the sigil, the bracelet started to glow once again as Bernard felt some of his magic enter into the bracelet as it started to expanded and reshape into the large lizard-like form of Baurs once again. Without warning, in front of the group, Baurs had returned.

"It would seem it's possible for you to have me accompany you without worrying about my size." Baurs said calmly as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits looked at eachother, bewildered.

"H-how?! How did you do that?!" Corvus said in surprise as Bernard and Vulp stared in confusion.

"I used some of Mr. Bernards energy to alter my physical state to an extent and broke down my state of matter into one capable for him to take me with him. I moved my consciousness around into his energy source to make it easier for him to have privacy as well." Baurs explained.

"Whoa, whoa! "My energy source?" You mean the Lacrima?!" Bernard said with a furrowed brow and strange expression.

"Another tenant in the "Bernard Motel?"' Corvus said with confusion.

"Hell no- Wait... "Motel?"' Bernard said in protest before acknowledging a phrase Corvus said. "If anything, my body is not a dingy inn. I am like a solid hotel with a view for you monsters." He said with a mildly offended tone.

"Hehehe." Corvus chuckled in response as Vulp formed a smile at Bernards random moment of going off topic.

"So, do we have a deal?" Baurs asked as Bernard turned his attention back towards the Earth Elemental.

"I..." Bernard stuttered for a moment, still unsure how to ask before he looked at Corvus and Vulp, looking with intent before Bernard sighed. "Fine, I concede... We'll take her along." Bernard said with exhaustion.

"I thank you for the opportunity." Baurs said as Corvus and Vulp made a happy look at eachother.

"Huh, perfect timing to finish this conversation. Barrier finally stopped." Bernard said as he looked up at the top of the cave and noticed the sounds stopped.

"Alright, now we can leave this hellhole." Corvus said with a sense of relief as Bernard went to the hole where the tree covered the entrance to the cave and struggled to push it off the hole but he struggled to do so with the weight of the tree.

"Damn it, it's too heavy for me…" Bernard said as he stopped try to push the tree as Baurs moved closer to Bernard.

"May I, master?" Baurs asked as Bernard grimaced from her referring to him as her master.

"...We are going to have a serious talk about how I don't like being referred to by that word... but whatever, go ahead." Bernard said as he felt bothered and let Baurs handle the issue of getting the tree out the way.

"Hey, before she does that, mind if I ask something?" Corvus said as Baurs, Bernard and Vulp looked at the crow. "What's the plan once we get up out of this cave? You plan to go back the guild?" He questioned as Bernard bit down on his lip.

"Umm..." Bernard mumbled as he was unsure how to answer that question. _"I hadn't even thought about going home with all this crap going on."_ He thought.

"Well, let me put it like this then; what's going to happen if we don't go back?" Corvus said with his wings folded as Bernards eyes widened.

_"...Oh crap, Camilla's probably going to tear off my legs if I try to run again..."_ Bernard thought as he swallowed spit as he came to realize what would happen if he ran away again. "So... I guess we just wait to get picked up... Or..." Bernard said until a thought appeared in his head.

"Huh? Or what?" Corvus said as Baurs and Vulp looked at Bernard.

"...I just thought of a funny idea for a prank." Bernard said with a smirk.

"I'm sorry but "you" thought of a prank?"' Corvus said with surprise.

"It involves a bottle of ketchup I left in my backpack at the camp." Bernard said, continuing to smirk.

"Whatever, I am in." Corvus said, getting on board with Vulp nodding in compliance.

"Do I fit in to this "prank?"' Baurs asked.

"Sure. Actually, instead of pushing the tree off the hole, can you dig us a path to the camp? Then I'll tell you guys on the way." Bernard said as he asked Baurs to dig a path.

Several minutes later on the other side of the island, Camilla and the Psycho Circus wizards were searching through the woods for any sign of Bernard.

"Bernard! Bernard!" Camilla screamed as she looked around the woods.

"Come out please!" Marlene shouted as she was pushing bushes out the way.

"Bernie! Where are you!?" Anatoli said as he floated on his ball over the trees as he flew around.

_"Damn it all to hell! I'm going to go insane if I can't find him!" _Camilla thought as she frantically continued to search. As everyone continuing looking, Pietro, still dressed in his strongman singlet, casually walked through the woods until he found the campsite where Bernard and the Celestial Spirits were staying the past couple of days.

"Found him!" Pietro said loudly so that everyone could hear.

"Oh thank goodness!" Marlene exclaimed as she, Camilla and Anatoli, who flew over, rushed to where Pietro was. "What the?!" Marlene screamed as she saw the disturbing sight before her.

"Oh crap!" Anatoli shouted with his mouth agape as he looked with Camilla, whose eyes were widening in shock.

The camp was in shambles and covered in stab markings from the falling shards of the barrier impaling through the tent and firepit but that was not what shocked the Psycho Circus wizards as the person they were looking for and his pet crow and fox were amongst the wreckage. Flat on the ground and covered in a red viscous fluid was Bernard, Corvus and Vulp, appearing to be dead.

"Oh my god..." Marlene said as she put her hands up over her mouth.

"This... This can't be happening..." Anatoli said as he got off his ball and fell to his knees as Camilla walked forward to look at Bernards lifeless body. Falling to her knees, she picked up Bernard slightly to look at him as tears begun to form on her face. As she looked at him, Pietro looked on the ground and noticed an empty ketchup bottle.

"Bernard! Wake up." Pietro said loudly as Anatoli and Marlene looked at Pietro, confused as Camilla continued to stare at the young mans body. "I found the ketchup..." Pietro said casually as Bernards facial expression went from lifeless to annoyed.

"Oh god damn it!" Bernard shouted angrily as Camilla fell back in surprise from Bernard suddenly waking up in her arms. "Who left the ketchup bottle there!?" He shouted in the direction of Corvus and Vulp as they stood up as well, annoyed.

"Wasn't me!" Corvus exclaimed as he shook off some of the ketchup off his body as Vulp did the same.

"Damn it! Baurs, get out here!" Bernard screamed as he stood up as the Psycho Circus guild members just stared, unsure of what they were witnessing before turning their heads to a patch of ground as they noticed a large rock-like creature come out of the dirt, taking them by surprise.

"I thought I was supposed to come out later than this?" Baurs said casually as Bernard, Corvus and Vulp looked at her with annoyance.

"You were but who left the ketchup bottle out for them to find?!" Bernard said angrily.

"Oh... My mistake." Baurs said casually as Corvus put his wing over his face.

"Pranks don't get "second takes!"' Corvus shouted in anger.

"Now what are- Gah!" Bernard said until he suddenly felt like he got tackled to the ground as he sat up and looked around to notice Marlene and Camilla were holding him.

"You're okay!" Marlene said happily with tears in her eyes and her arms around Bernards waist as Camilla quietly just hugged him with her arms draped around his shoulders and neck and rubbing her cheek against his face, causing Bernard to blush in response.

"Di-did... Did you just attempt to prank us!?" Anatoli said as he stood up with a look of surprise and outrage on his face.

'"Attempt" being the golden word." Corvus said as he and Vulp looked at Baurs with annoyance and disappointment as Bernard tried to push off Camilla and Marlene.

"Come on, get off me already!" Bernard said with nervousness as they continued to cling to him as Bernard looked up at Pietro, who approached.

"Had some fun with your time here?" Pietro said with a smirk as he reached out his hand for Bernard to grab to lift him up.

Bernard, looking at his hand for a minute, sighed and then formed a smirk of his own as Camilla and Marlene let go of him as he grabbed Pietros hand as the large man brought Bernard to his feet.

"I'm assuming you know what happened here?" Bernard asked of the big man.

"More than you know." Pietro said as he patted Bernard on back.

"Whatever, just take me home. Come on guys." Bernard said as he picked up his backpack from the remains of the campsite and walked away with Pietro following him with the creatures in tow.

"Hey..." Camilla said as she and Marlene stood up from the ground as Anatoli looked at the girls.

"What?" Anatoli asked.

"You hear what he said?" Camilla said with a smile forming on her face.

"No, what?" Marlene wondered.

"He called the guild "home."' Camilla said with a bright smile forming on her face as Anatoli and Marlene formed smiles of their own, hopeful that Bernards attitude had changed since his time on the island.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus guildhall, 4:07 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Whoa what?!" Said one of the random male clown members of the Psycho Circus guild as a group of the members stood around Baurs, looking at her in awe.

"This thing is an Elemental?! What even is that?!" Said of the random female acrobat members.

"I am a creature created from magical energy combined with a form of element such as the ground-" Baurs said until she was cut off by the sight of the Psycho Circus members in shock.

"It can talk too?!" Harriet said as her beard hair stood on end in surprise at Baurs ability to speak.

"Yes, telepathically. I had this ability before Bernard met me on the island." Baurs said calmly.

"So now you work for Bernie? Would you look at that! We got birds, foxes, giant slime monsters and now, rock lizards!" Anatoli said as he flew over on his ball with a drink in his hand.

"The family just keeps growing." Marlene said with a smile as she looked at Baurs.

"Your family, you and this living boulder have the most in common out of anyone here." Anatoli joked as tears started to form out of Marlenes face at the acknowledgement of her appearance.

"Screw you Anatoli!" Marlene said with tears in her eyes as she looked at the monkey man.

Meanwhile at the bar, Master Barnum was sitting on the table with Pietro, his clothes repaired, sitting in one of the stools with a cocktail glass in his hand.

"It would seem the plan you came up with worked well, Master Barnum." Pietro said casually to Master Barnum who smirked at the large man. "But is it wise to have me supervise any kind of training for Bernard? Shouldn't that be a job for his father?" He questioned.

"Now, now Pietro. The boy's never going to realize his potential if I give him a helping hand, especially when he thinks of me as a "lazy bum of a guild master." It's best I let you take care of things. Especially now that I can tell he can use his magic and his skills are growing." Master Barnum said with a mischievous smirk on his face as he pointed at Bernard, approaching while holding a broom.

"Finished sweeping." Bernard said as he put the broom down as he looked at Pietro. "Mind if I talk to you?" Bernard asked of Pietro.

"Any time." Pietro said as Master Barnum smirked in his sons direction before disappearing, Bernards eye twitching in response before he took a seat next to Pietro.

"So what exactly was the big plan here for this whole "island retreat" scheme?" Bernard questioned towards Pietro, who was casually sipping his mixed drink.

"Do you remember that job we went on where we had to get rid of some Weretigers who were destroying some farmers property?" Pietro said as Bernard nodded in response. "Part of the reason I chose that was job was so it could be a test for you."

"A test for what?" Bernard said with confusion.

"You disappear for two years and come back having tamed a crow with electrical magic, a shapeshifting fox and a giant rampaging monster made of ooze. I felt appropriate to give you a job to see if you could tame more, get you some "extra hands" on top of what you already had." Pietro said as Bernard raised his eyebrow.

"Well that didn't work out then because there's no Weretigers in the guildhall." Bernard replied.

"So I decided to give you an even bigger test of your skills." Pietro said as he looked at Bernard. "Awhile back, I received a job to go to that island to see what had happened to make it so uninhabitable despite being a perfectly fine place for animals to roost. While there, I found that rock lizard you have brought with you and a massive turtle that was spraying acid and fighting it." He continued.

"It's name was Cercis, by the way." Bernard said as Pietro continued.

"I thought about handling the situation myself but then I had received word around the time about your train trip to Magnolia so I decided that took more precedence and went with Camilla and the others to find you." Pietro explained as he finished his drink.

"So... If you could handle it, why did you leave it up to me to handle everything there? Did you expect me to survive and bring Baurs here with me?" Bernard said as he had more questions.

"Actually I half-expected you to bring both of those things home with you." Pietro said jokingly as Bernard made a strange expression.

"Trust me, if you were there, there was no way I was bringing home that destructive flower garden." Bernard said with disgust.

"So you brought home the rock lizard, good enough." Pietro said.

"I still don't understand the point of you leaving me there. For some kind of training? And the whole "calm down message" you left." Bernard said as he continued to think back.

"The message was to give you an appropriate hint, one I could obviously tell you didn't follow given the smoke I saw in the morning that you didn't kill the monster until sunrise." Pietro said with an annoyed smirk.

"Like hell I am listening to everything you say. I beat my own drum." Bernard said with an angry smirk.

"And there's the other reason you needed that island retreat." Pietro said as he turned around from his stool in the direction of the guildmembers. "The bird, the fox, the slime and now this lizard, they followed you because they think you have the brainpower and the charisma to lead them in the right direction. It's no different than the situation here." Pietro said as Bernard continued to look at him. "This place needs someone in charge like that, or else it will never grow and get better. You being Master Barnums son has little to nothing to do with it, the reason people want you to take over as guild master is because they think you have what it takes." He continued.

"...That's hard for me to do when I am still not a member of this guild, I'm still just some prisoner." Bernard said as he rested his arm on the bar and propped up his hand to support his head.

"Only in your mind. To everyone else, you're just as much a member as you were before. Gotta realize that someday." Pietro said as he put his hand on Bernards shoulder, causing the young man to smile.

As the two sat at the bar, Pietro looked in the direction behind Bernard as Bernard turned his head to notice Camilla appear with a platter in her hand. With a warm smile on her face, she took a drink that was on the platter and put it in front of Bernard as a gift.

"This for me?" Bernard said with surprise.

"Consider it on the house." Camilla said with a smile as Bernard smiled in response as he picked it up. Moments before he could take a sip, however, Camilla got incredibly close to Bernard and put her lips mere meters next to his ear to whisper into it.

"You should smile like that more often, it makes you look cool." Camilla said with a comforting tone as Bernard felt a chill run through his body as his face turned bright red in arousal as Camilla walked away with a confident look on her face.

"...Do you need advice on that too? Hehe." Pietro said jokingly as Bernard turned towards Pietro with a bright red face of embarrassment and anger.

"Sh-shut up, you fat old man!" Bernard said loudly.

* * *

**If the barrier was like a mirror shattering and Pietro was the one who broke it, does that mean seven years bad luck for Pietro or for Bernard because he was on the other side? Aw forget it, anyway; The Psycho Circus guild grew another "member" stronger as Bernards time on the island had concluded and he was brought home stronger and now with four beasts inhabiting his body in some capacity. With Pietro revealing the point of his training and Bernard and co. failing to pull off a "fake my death" prank because someone left out the ketchup bottle; Bernard has returned home to Psycho Circus, despite still considering himself not a member, he at least is being more friendly. But what now that Bernard is acting more friendly? Where could this lead now that Bernard knows he can get more beasts inside of him? Well... I guess we just need to find out on the next Menagerie, now won't we?**


	29. Chapter 29

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tent House, 6:49 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

With a day having past since Bernard came home from his stay on the island at the end of Nereid Lake and getting possession of a new creature in the form of the Earth Elemental known as Baurs, the young man, dressed in a red T-shirt black pajama bottoms and his stone bracelet around his wrist, just wanted to enjoy the morning asleep on the bed that he yearned to relax on.

_"Ahhh… This feels nice..."_ Bernard thought with a content expression on his face as his head laid on the pillow. _"Lost hours of freaking sleep because of that stupid island... Haaaa… This bed so nice and soft..." _He continued to think.

As Bernard laid on his back, his hands were placed on a shapely figure that he could feel underneath the sheets of the bed as he moved his hands around it, assuming it was a pillow. Shifting and waving his open palms, he rubbed against the figure under the sheets as he enjoyed the feeling of the figure pressing against his chest.

_"Man, this bed is even better than it was the last time I slept on it... It feels like the sheets and pillows are hugging me back."_ Bernard thought with a smirk as he tightened his hug on the mass underneath the sheets. In response, it felt like the mass under the covers was embracing Bernard just as tightly as Bernard moved one of his hands lower and felt like he rubbered another soft and round object, different from the ones that were pressing against his chest.

"Ahn…" A sound was let out as Bernard gripped the round object at the end of figure underneath the blanket.

_"Huh?" _Bernard thought for a second as he noticed that suspicious noise. Inching his chin slightly downward, he noticed the bottom of his chin was resting on something, something with brown hair. _"...Oh no... not again..."_ Bernard thought nervously as he suddenly opened his eyes wide and looked downward and noticed a sight that was familiar to him.

Looking down, Bernard noticed the sight of a soundly asleep Camilla laying on top of him. Dressed in a green tank top and brown shorts, her head was directly under Bernards chin and her left hand was casually laying on Bernards chest with her right arm wrapped around his waist, holding him tightly and pressing herself against him and with her legs intertwined with both of his.

"Hi-mpfh!"Bernard mumbled before quickly keeping his mouth shut to avoid waking Camilla. _"Crap! It happened again! Damn it!" _He thought nervously as he looked down at Camilla, stirring in her sleep.

Staring at her as she embraced him in his sleep, Bernard looked down and noticed under the covers that the figure he was holding was Camillas body, holding her in a way that appeared like he and her were lovers cuddling together on the bed.

_"Okay, okay. Calm down Bernard. This isn't something to go nuts over, this is a situation you can handle, a situation where a girl who has been... Kissing you in your sleep, and has been hitting on you is spooning you... And now I just realized I may have just groped her butt... I'm such an idiot..." _Bernard thought in embarrassment as he blushed from the realization of what he rubbed earlier. _"Alright, first I'll move my hand and- Eep!"_ Bernard thought as he noticed Camilla stir and got up slightly from his chest.

"Haaa…" Camilla yawned as she loomed over Bernard, looking down at his slightly anxious expression. "Hey there you, good morning." She said with half closed eyes and a smile as Bernard moved his hands off her lower backside.

"Uhhh! Hi, I'm so-sorry about that, I-I-" Bernard mumbled, unsure of how to reply before he looked down and noticed Camilla put her hands on his wrists and moved Bernards palms back on her waistline, catching him by surprise as his face turned red.

"There's no need to worry you know. I don't mind you touching me like that." Camilla said in a reassuring way as she put her arms around Bernards shoulders and laid back on him once again, laying her head on his left shoulder. "Feels nice, doesn't it?" She said with a smile at Bernards side.

"I-I-It definitely feels like something!" Bernard said nervously as Camilla just looked at him with a soothing look. _"I wanted to say "yes" but I don't want her to get any thoughts in her head."_ He thought.

"Hehe." Camilla giggled slightly as she increased the embrace on Bernards body, pressing her breasts against Bernard chest. "When we both went to bed last night, I thought I felt something holding me but whatever it was, it felt nice. Come to find out, it was you. I had a real good sleep last night actually." She said with a smile as she hugged the red faced Bernard.

"I-I see..." Bernard replied in his embarrassed and aroused state as he felt his body stiffened up.

"What about you? Had a nice nights sleep?" Camilla said as she picked her head up from next to Bernard and looked him in the eyes with a sweet look.

"It was... Alright..." Bernard said with hesitation as he swallowed spit.

_"He's so nervous! Hahaha!"_ Camilla thought, internally laughing at Bernards hesitation while also happy because of his obvious arousal. "Well then, maybe we should just sleep like that more often. As a matter of fact, let's sleep a little bit more like that right now." Camilla said as she inched her face closer to Bernards. "Well... The poking feeling I had against my leg was a bit concerning at first, but I got used to it, hehe." She giggled as Bernard blushed at the realization of what she meant.

_'"Poking feeling..." Wait, she couldn't be meaning... Oh crap!"_ Bernard thought with embarrassment "Uh! Maybe some other time!" Bernard said in confusion while sweating profusely as he sat up, Camilla still clinging to him as she sat up with him from her hold around him. Bernard then placed his hands on Camillas shoulders and lightly pushed her off of him as they both now sat on the bed. "As much as I would like to sleep more, it's early and we gotta get the guild all set up! Plus I got jobs everyone needs from me and I- blargh!" Bernard rambled as he backed away from Camilla on the bed until he turned around to get off the bed and his face impacted against something.

Backing away from what his face hit, Bernard placed his hands up and noticed a yellow see-through panel was in front of him. Turning back around, he noticed the entire bed was encased in a barrier box, preventing anyone from getting in or, in Bernards case, getting out.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention." Camilla said with a smirk as she laid on the bed, her right cheek laying on her right hand, propped up by her right arm. "I got worried someone would try and enter the tent while you were gone so I started to put up a barrier around the bed for safe keeping." She continued. _"And for keeping in runaways who don't know how good they have it."_ She thought humorously.

"Huh?!" Bernard exclaimed as he turned around back towards the direction of Camilla, who was looking at him with a bright smile that made him more and more anxious. "Why is this barrier still up then!? Don't we gotta get everything ready at the guild and everything?!" He said with his back against the barrier.

"Normally." Camilla said as she got on all fours and approached Bernard. "But I think I have a better idea as to what we are going to do today." She said as she got closer and closer to her sweating bedmate.

"Wha-what would tha-that be?!" Bernard questioned as Camilla got mere inches from his face.

"A day off." Camilla said casually as she put her right hand on Bernards left cheek.

"Wha-what's that supposed to mean?" Bernard said, unsure of what she meant.

"Exactly what I said, a day off of work." Camilla said with a smirk. "A day to relax, to do whatever you want and enjoy yourself... And with me." She continued as Bernard looked her in the eyes.

"And why would you be- Huh?!" Bernard said until he was cut off by Camilla inching her face even closer to the point Bernard could feel her breathing on him.

"I am supposed to be keeping an eye on you. So for this "day off" from work, you are spending it with me. No "ifs" "ands" or "buts." Guess you can call this a date, hehe." Camilla said seductively as Bernards heart started to race as he tried to fathom everything she just said.

_"D-D-Da-Date?!"_ Bernard thought as he stared at Camillas alluring expression. "Bu-But-But what about the work I need to do?!" He questioned.

"We can leave it to someone else." Camilla said with a smirk.

"Wel-Well what about the guild jobs?" Bernard said nervously.

"Everyone can handle their work without you, they did before." Camilla said while locking eyes with Bernard, who was swallowing the spit forming in his mouth from his anxiety.

_"Crap, I am running out of ideas... Wait! What if I wake up Corvus or Baurs, then I can get out from the distraction!"_ Bernard said as he raised his right wrist over to his Lacrima pacemaker.

As he moved it, Camilla noticed what he was about to do and quickly grabbed his hand with her left hand, gently rubbing it in the process and placing it back on the bed as Bernard, feeling trapped, looked at Camilla, whose half closed eyes gave him a moderately threatening yet attractive look.

"Do not fight me on this... All I want to do today is give you a good time." Camilla said sternly as she inched her face next to Bernards ear to whisper into. "In any way you want." She said seductively into his ear as Bernards eyes twitched in shock.

_"Ahhh! I'm going to have a heart attack at this rate! This is too much for me!" _Bernard said as his body twitched as Camilla inched back slightly to look at him.

_"Thank you '"1000 Seductive Phrases" by Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki." Best 2000 Jewel I've ever spent!" _Camilla thought with a smirk on her face as she continued to stare at Bernard. "So... Let's have some fun today." She said as she closed her eyes.

As she puckered her lips, She inched further towards Bernards face, attempting to kiss him.

_"...Not even trying to hide it anymore..."_ Bernard thought nervously as he closed his eyes in a nervous manner as he prepared for Camilla to give him a smooch.

Suddenly, however, a noise from outside the tent caught the attention of the two, causing them to open their eyes and stare at eachother as they just both stood mere inches from eachother on the bed.

"Anatoli! Don't just barge into their place!" Said the voice of Marlene from outside the tent house.

"Seriously, show some tact." Said the voice of Pietro, also outside.

"Hey, the best kind of entrance is the one no one is expecting! They are probably still asleep anyway." Anatoli shouted as he pushed by the tent curtain entrance and had entered the tent house. "Morning knuckleheads, we're here to borrow Bernard for- Huh?!" He said as he rolled on his ball until he was cut off by the scene in front of him of Camilla on top of Bernard on their bed, surrounded by a barrier.

Following his words, the barrier around the pairs bed started to crack and break apart into pieces, almost as if shattering Camillas plans into tiny pieces along with it.

"Whaa!' Bernard exclaimed as he fell backwards off the bed onto his back on the floor as Camilla started to violently twitch.

"Uhh?! Oh my god, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to- Blah!" Anatoli said, attempting to apologize as he turned around to leave until he bumped face first into a barrier panel in front of the entrance to the room. "What the hell- Ahhh!" He said until he turned back to Camilla and noticed she was slowed jerking her head in his direction, a dark and evil look of anger appearing on her face.

"Anatoli..." Camilla said slowly and angrily as her body glowed an aura of magic.

Meanwhile outside, Marlene and Pietro casually stood around outside the tent house as they waited for everyone to come outside.

"Should have stopped him before he went inside." Marlene said as she shook her head left and right as Anatolis blood curdling screams could be heard coming out of Camillas home.

"Builds character." Pietro said as he stood with his hands in his pockets.

After several minutes of screaming, the people inside the tent house finally exited. Camilla, sporting a grey tank top underneath a loose green plaid over-shirt, a grey miniskirt and a pair of green open toed shoes, had walked out with her arms folded and an annoyed look on her face.

"What?" Camilla said with annoyance towards Marlene and Pietro.

"Morning?" Marlene said nervously as Camilla glared at the pair.

"I have plans today and a certain person is involved with said plans, so whatever you guys are planning for him; reschedule it." Camilla said sternly.

"You don't have to sound so harsh." Marlene said as she scratched the back of her head as Camilla softened her expression.

As they talked, out from the tent house came Anatoli, covered in bruises and slap marks across his face, and Bernard, sporting an orange t-shirt, black baggy pants, black and white sneakers and his black beanie with similar slap marks across his face.

"You could have held back a little... Ugh..." Anatoli said groggily.

"Hmph." Camilla grunted with annoyance.

"And why did you slap me too?" Bernard questioned as he rubbed his cheek.

_"For not reciprocating sooner..."_ Camilla thought with a slight blush on her face as she looked away.

"Any reason you guys are here?" Bernard said as he looked at Pietro, Marlene and Anatoli.

"Well... Before I was seeing the pearly gates and the bright lights... We came over to see you... Oww..." Anatoli said as he rubbed his own back from the pain.

"And that's why you knock before entering." Pietro said as he looked at Anatoli.

"What do you guys want from me today?" Bernard said as he looked at the others as Camilla stood in front of Bernard.

"Absolutely nothing because Bernard is not doing anything related to guild work today." Camilla said with her arms still folded as she looked at the trio.

"Seems a little selfish to be hogging the guy- Eep!" Anatoli said until he was cut off by the sight of Camillas hands glowing with barrier orbs forming around her fists, scaring the monkey man to the point he hid behind his giant ball.

"He is not going anywhere, end of discussion!" Camilla said sternly as she dispelled her barrier fists.

"May I talk?" Bernard spoke up as Camilla turned towards him. "What do you guys want?" He continued.

"Proper training." Pietro said as he approached Bernard.

"And by "proper," you mean not leaving me on an island?" Bernard joked as Camilla looked at Pietro.

"No, this time, it's going to be something more traditional; sparring." Pietro said as he looked at Bernard with Anatoli and Marlene approaching behind him.

"With us!" Marlene said eagerly.

"Just like old times!" Anatoli said enthusiastically.

"Uh huh..." Bernard said calmly as Camilla once again got in front of him to keep the others away.

"As much "fun" as it would be to have Bernard get more training so he can be more like us, I don't think he wants to spend his day fighting everyone here so I think you guys should just go to the guildhall while me and Bernard-" Camilla tried to explain to the others until Bernard put his hand on her shoulder to cut her off.

"Okay, I'll spar." Bernard said casually.

'"What?!"' Camilla, Anatoli and Marlene said in shock at Bernards sudden willingness to participate.

"Well, that's mature of you Bernard." Pietro said with a moderately impressed look on his face as Camilla put her arms on Bernards shoulders with a confused expression on her face.

"Wh-Why?! You just got back from that island and fighting that weird giant turtle thing you mentioned and we were going to-" Camilla stuttered until she stopped herself finishing her sentence as Anatoli and Marlene looked at her with smug expressions.

"Oh? What were you planning today?" Anatoli said with a smirk as Marlene made a similar expression as Camilla blushed before Bernard lightly brushed off Camillas hands from his shoulders.

"It's not a big deal to me." Bernard said nonchalantly as Camilla slumped her shoulders in a defeated expression as Marlene and Anatoli put their hands on her shoulders.

"Hey don't be so glum, chum. We're all hanging out today anyway!" Anatoli said as Marlene gave a thumbs up as Camilla gave a negative glare towards her friends.

_"If things went my way, you dolts wouldn't be bugging me and Bernard when all I wanted was some alone time with him..."_ Camilla thought as her eye twitched.

"Go wake up your creatures and tell them what's going on." Pietro said as he walked over to Camilla, Marlene and Anatoli as Bernard walked out to the open space in front of the Psycho Circus guild hall and the entrance gate.

"One day... Just one day, you could have left him alone after that whole bull crap from the island! But no, you had to make him do some "sparring" crap and ruin my entire plan for the day." Camilla complained as Anatoli and Marlene looked nervously at her.

"I'm sorry Camilla but he needs this training." Pietro tried to explain as Camilla just glared at him.

"Hey, with luck, this sparring won't take too long and then you can join us inside for a drink and-" Anatoli spoke until he noticed Camilla was glaring harshly in his direction.

"You might want to be quiet..." Marlene said to Anatoli as she noted Camillas angry look.

Meanwhile, with Bernard in the flat land in front of the big top, Corvus, Vulp and Baurs were out and standing in front of him.

"Soooo... Apparently I, and by "I," I mean "we," are sparring today." Bernard said as he scratched his head.

"I'm sorry, what?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow as Baurs and Vulp looked at eachother.

"Pietro thinks it might be good we get some proper combat training, despite the fact we have dealt with plenty of fights so I guess this is just something we need." Bernard said as he contemplated it for a second.

"You mean where we half assed the whole time and only during the fight with the turtle, we actually had a plan after several fails." Corvus said, busting Bernards chops to his chagrin.

"Hey, we won fights... Minus some of the context." Bernard said as he attempted to try and scapegoat some of the problems from previous altercations they dealt with.

"Such as?" Baurs asked with interest.

"Oh he ran like a chicken from this owl headed guy back in this town he was living in before." Corvus said with a smirk as Bernard got annoyed.

"I was not prepared for that!" Bernard shouted in response.

"Then there was the vampire in Crocus." Corvus continued.

"How'd that go?" Baurs asked in intrigue.

"Well... We won." Bernard said as Vulp looked at him with a raised eyebrow at his nervous expression.

"After we got help from the royals..." Corvus stated, once again to Bernards chagrin.

"Okay fine! I admit, we haven't had a ton of luck in fights but this training might not be entirely what we need." Bernard said as he put his hands up.

"Then we got our asses handed by the puppet guy until your old man showed up." Corvus said with his wings crossed.

_"Thank god he isn't here right now..."_ Bernard thought annoyed and thankful Chester Woodstock wasn't around. "Okay so... You guys on board with this whole thing? What do you think?" He asked.

"If it's something you wish for me to participate in, I do not mind." Baurs said calmly as Vulp looked at Bernard and nodded in compliance to work as Bernard locked eyes with Corvus.

"How about you?" Bernard questioned the crow.

"Ehhh, got nothing better than do. Plus I get to zap your friends. Hehe." Corvus said as he flew up and over to Bernards shoulder. After he said that, Bernards eyes widened in realization over acknowledging what Corvus just said.

"..."Zap my friends..." Right... We can hit them... As much I want..." Bernard said aloud to himself with wide eyes as the creatures looked at him with concern.

"Uhhhh kid?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow as he noticed Bernard continued to be deep in thought.

"We don't have to hold back... At all..." Bernard said as an evil grin started to form on his face. "Hehehe... Hehehe..." He started chuckling strangely as the creatures looked at him with concern.

_"Something tells me this sparring is not going to be as much of a "learning experience."'_ Corvus thought as he looked at Bernards malicious expression.

"Okay Bernard." Pietro said as he walked over to him as Anatoli, Marlene and a disgruntled Camilla approached. "You tell everyone what's going on?" He asked.

"Oh yes! We are totally ready!" Bernard said as he softened his evil smile to a normal, slightly enthusiastic disposition.

"See, he doesn't mind." Anatoli said to Camilla as he noticed Bernards chipper attitude. As Anatoli said that, however, Camilla noticed Bernards expression seemed a bit off to her.

"Okay, Bernard, first part of this training. You will facing off with Anatoli and you are to only use the bird as your weapon." Pietro said as he and the girls backed away as Bernard and Corvus stood several feet from Anatoli who was sitting on his googly-eyed ball.

"I'm a crow, you stupid baldy!" Corvus shouted angrily towards the mustachioed strong man.

"Hope you're ready Bernie! Been waiting for this moment for years since we were kids!" Anatoli said as started to glow from his magic.

"Oh I bet you do... Hehehe..." Bernard said as slowly started to form a sadistic looking grin on his face.

_"Oh boy..."_ Corvus thought with a sense of alarm as he felt Bernard start to give him some of his magical energy.

* * *

**Poor Camilla, all she wanted on this day was to give Bernard a nice relaxing day off; and by that, I mean, she wanted to have some "quality time" spent with alone with him... potentially with that time spent in the bedroom under the sheets. With Anatoli ruining her plans, Bernard and his pet brigade are now going to be involved with "proper training" to face off with his friends in a fight. However, it seems Bernards aggravation towards his friends might not have completely dissipated. Next time on Menagerie, Bernard squares off with his "friends" from Psycho Circus! **

**(Authors note: Hey everybody, been awhile since I said anything but here we are. Yeah, this is another cut down, original idea for this chapter. WAAAYYYY longer, so as usual, not to slap you with a wall of text, this is a cutdown. See you next time folks. And keep on with the reviews, I like seeing the opinions.)**


	30. Chapter 30

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guildhall, 7:21 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Whirlwind!" Anatoli proclaimed loudly as he spun around in a circle on top of his ball. As he spun, the wind begun to pick up in a spiral as a large tornado of harsh gust had formed where he stood.

As the tornado blew the air around, Corvus flew back slightly into Bernards arms as the pair felt the dirt and grass kick up around them as they struggled to keep their eyes open. Nearby, standing within one of Camillas barrier boxes, was Camilla, Marlene and Pietro, protecting them from the wind.

"Again with the stupid tornado..." Camilla said, still sporting the same annoyed expression on her face.

"His Wind Magic is quite unpredictable. It could be just the thing to give Bernard a proper trial." Pietro said as he rubbed his chin as Marlene and Camilla watched.

"Here comes the pain Bernie!" Anatoli shouted from within the magic tornado he created. "Whirlwind Cutter!" He said as the tornado started to form blade-like wind protrusions that begun to fly out towards Bernard and Corvus' direction.

'"Oh crap!"' Bernard and Corvus exclaimed as they both jumped in the opposite direction, dodging the blades as they continued to fly off and slice into the ground.

"We're going to make Anatoli clean up this mess after we are done, correct?" Marlene asked.

"Definitely." Pietro replied.

"Yup." Camilla said with her arms folded.

"I'm not enjoying this kid!" Corvus said as he put his wings over his head as he and Bernard were down, ducking out of the way of Anatoli's attack.

"Hmmmm…" Bernard mumbled as he looked up at the tornado. "Got an idea." He said as he turned his eyes towards Corvus.

"About time!" Corvus thought as he squirmed around on the ground.

"Shoot a bolt through the top of the tornado!" Bernard said as he pointed upward.

"Why there?" Corvus said confused.

"I know Anatoli, he doesn't think that far ahead." Bernard said as Corvus flew upward.

Dodging the incoming blades, Corvus flew overhead of the tornado and looked down to see Anatoli spinning his arms in circular motions as the monkey-like man looked up to see the crow looking down at him.

"Hiya chicken!" Anatoli said with a smirk as he pointed his spinning arms in the direction of Corvus. "Tornado Twister!" Anatoli shouted as two torrents of wind emerged from his arms in the direction of Corvus.

"Grrr! I am not a chicken!" Corvus screamed as his body started to spark up with red and white electricity. "I am a crow!" The crow said in an angry manner as he discharged his lightning towards the incoming tornados, causing them to dissipate as Anatolis' eyes widened in shock.

"Oh no!" Anatoli screamed as the lightning shot downward into the tornado and zapped him "Ablrblblblr!" He babbled as the electricity flowed through his body and made him lose his balance from his ball as the magic tornado disappeared, falling to the ground. "Ugh!" Anatoli muttered as he landed on his back on the ground as his ball fell on him.

"And don't you forget it!" Corvus said angrily as he continued to spark at the downed Anatoli.

"Alright, good work Bernard." Pietro said as Camilla dispelled her barrier.

"Nicely done." Marlene said with a smile as she watched on with Camilla, still showing obvious signs of annoyance at the whole situation.

"Okay, are we done?" Camilla said as she wanted things to be over and done with.

"Yeah, our match is over. Good work-" Anatoli said as he sat up but was cut off by the sight of Bernard, forming an angry smirk on his face.

"Corvus! Quick! Before he can do something else!" Bernard quickly shouted as Corvus shot out more lightning bolts from his body and continued to taser Anatoli as he was down.

"Ow! Stop! Ah!" Anatoli said as Corvus continued to shock him.

"Zap! Zap! Ahahaha!" Corvus said with glee as he continued to shock Anatoli as Bernard looked on with an evil smile.

_"...That's for tying me up back in Magnolia." _Bernard thought with a twitch in his eyes and a cruel smile on his face. "Keep going! Keep zapping!"

"Uhhh... Bernard. You can stop now." Pietro said with a concerned look on his face as Marlene looked nervously at Bernards psychotic behavior.

Stopping after several continued low voltage shocks, Corvus had flew back down to the ground and Bernard looked at Anatoli, charred and smoking like burning charcoal with his eyes swirling in pain.

"That was fun." Corvus said with a smirk.

"Indeed." Bernard said smiling as they looked at their handiwork. "Nice job" He said as he put his hand on Corvus' head, petting him.

"Well this is different. Not sure I like it to be honest." Corvus said as Bernard petted the crow.

"Spur of the moment considering this is one of the rare times we are on the same- ...page." Bernard said until he and Corvus noticed a loud crunching noise that caught their attention. Turning their heads backwards, Bernard and Corvus shivered as they noticed a set of peculiar sight.

From Bernards sightline, he looked at the face of Vulp, whose eye was twitching angrily as his tail had shapeshifted into a pair of giant claws and was holding a torn up portion of a nearby tree. In similar fashion, Corvus looked back and saw the scary sight of Camilla, making a similar expression to Vulps, standing in front of a barrier that was slowly decreasing around another tree, crushing it into pieces.

"Uhhh… Kid? You might want to save the "public displays of affection" to the ones who really want it from you." Corvus said nervously as Bernard nodded in response.

"If everyone is done being overly sadistic and jealously filled, can we move on?" Pietro said as he caught the attention of everyone as he walked over and picked up the still downed Anatoli. "Next on the block will be Marlene." He said as he laid down Anatoli on his ball as he stirred back to consciousness.

"Next time we do this... Remind me not to go first..." Anatoli said groggily from his pain as Camilla sighed, still displeased by the events happening.

"Okay, Bernard. This training will be utilizing the fox as your only weapon now." Pietro said as Vulp perked up from his envious expression and quickly rushed to Bernards side.

"You ready?" Bernard said as he kneeled down and looked at the fox, who nodded in response. "Cool... Because you aren't going to hold back, got it?" He said with an evil smile as he looked in the direction of Marlene, who winced at the sight of his malicious glare.

"T-Take it easy on me please? I'm not really a combative wizard you know..." Marlene said in a frightened manner, hoping Bernard would be lenient.

"Sure, sure... I'll be nice with you." Bernard said with a dark grin as Vulp followed his lead and turned his tail into a mass of sharp pointed tentacles. _"...This is for drugging me with some stupid mushroom paste. Hehehe..."_ He thought with evil intent.

"And begin!" Pietro shouted as he ordered for the sparring match to begin. Upon hearing him start, Marlene used her Camouflage Magic to turn invisible to escape Bernard and Vulps line of sight.

"Vulp, sniff her out." Bernard said as he pointed his finger at Vulp, transferring his energy to the fox as Vulp sniffed out Marlenes hiding location. Reaching out with his tentacles, Vulp reached down low and grabbed an invisible object with one of his tentacles.

"Waaahhh!" Marlene screamed in shock as Vulp lifted her up above the ground, her pulling down on her skirt to make sure no one could see her underwear. "Okay, I give! I give!" Marlene said with worry in her tone.

"Winner; Bernard!" Pietro said as Marlene forfeited the match. "Put her down Bernard."

'"Down" you say?" Bernard said as he looked at Marlene. "Gladly... Hehe." He said with a sadistic look on his face. "Vulp!"

In response to Bernard, Vulp proceeded to lift Marlene higher into the air, as high as the fox was able to lift before he loosened his grasp on Marlenes ankle as she begun to plummet to the ground.

"Ahhhh!" Marlene screamed as she fell towards the ground. As she saw this, Camilla put her hand up as a dome-like barrier formed on the ground below where she was falling. Hitting the barrier, Marlene bounced off it from the soft surface the barrier had. "Ugff!" She grunted as she bounced off the bubble-like barrier Camilla made and hit the ground.

"Hey, you alright?" Camilla said as she got close to Marlene and helped her up.

"Ugh... I've been better..." Marlene said tiredly as she glanced at Bernard, who was smiling once again at his cruel behavior. "Something is telling me... He is still angry with us..." Marlene said with a bit of a depressed tone as Camilla made a disgruntled expression in response, pulling her over to Anatoli and Pietro.

"Nice job Pietro." Camilla said as she put down Marlene, who was rubbing her chest in exhaustion as Anatoli sat back up on his ball.

"So much for this "training exercise," he is pretty much turning this whole thing into one big sadism session for himself." Anatoli said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"I know, I know. This isn't going according to plan." Pietro said as he rubbed his forehead, realizing his training for Bernard and his pets isn't panning out.

"I can tell." Camilla said sarcastically with a displeased look on her face.

"So what's the plan here?" Anatoli said as he looked up at Pietro.

"Give me a minute." Pietro said while in thought.

"Why don't you face him?" Marlene said as she looked at Pietro. "You're extremely strong, you can probably knock sense into him." She continued.

"I did not plan for my own involvement to be completely honest, I was thinking he was going to be more cooperative and just face you both with more of a fairer attitude." Pietro said with his arms folded as Camilla rolled her eyes.

"Well, that didn't work out now, didn't it?" Camilla said in a criticizing tone as she turned around and looked towards Bernard and his pets.

"As much as I like the fact he is playing along, this isn't the kind of "game" I'm enjoying, you know?" Anatoli complained.

"Agreed..." Marlene said with a bothered attitude as they all looking in Bernards direction.

"Hehehehe…" Bernard chuckled as he continued to smile evilly.

"Hey, you might want to stop laughing like that, people might confuse you for a villain." Corvus said.

"Oh come on, how am I not supposed to enjoy this? I'm finally getting some much needed stress relief." Bernard said in his defense.

"...From the people who want to be around you?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow as Vulp and Baurs just looked on.

"Yes!- I mean, no. It's... Damn it! Stop twisting my words around!" Bernard shouted in response.

"I must concur with the avian. I don't see the value in assaulting your allies so violently." Baurs said as Corvus looked at her with annoyance.

_'"Avian?"'_ Corvus thought with a twitch in his eye.

"I'm not assaulting them, this is all part of the spar. They knew what they were getting into when they decided to fight us." Bernard said with his arms folded and a cocky look on his face. As he looked at the creatures, the group of monsters looked back at Bernard with a judgmental look. "What?!" He shouted back in response.

"Doesn't really seem fair to them..." Corvus said as he looked at Bernard, judging his mentality.

"...Didn't seem fair to me when they hit me a bunch back in Magnolia..." Bernard said as he sat down on the grass and looked in another direction.

"Actually it kinda was since you ran off and badmouthed about them to me and Vulp." Corvus said as Vulp nodded in agreement with his words.

"...Tch!" Bernard mumbled as he clicked his tongue in response.

"Hey! Bernard." Pietro shouted as he removed his shirt, revealing his singlet underneath his clothes as he placed his magic wrestling belt around his waist. "Your next opponent will be me. You may use Baurs for this one." He said as he activated his magic and his muscles started to bulge.

_"Max Muscle Magic. A walking mass of raw power." _Bernard thought as he beckoned Baurs to follow him as he got up from the ground. "Okay Baurs, it's your turn." He said as he looked at the large rock lizard.

"Very well." Baurs said as she walked forward with Bernard.

"I'm sorry to say this, but the fun and games end here. This spar will be far more challenging for you." Pietro explained as his body grew bigger and bulkier from his magic.

"Oh I bet it will..." Bernard said as he pointed his fingers at Baurs, transferring energy. "Now dig!" He commanded as Baurs dug into the ground at fast speeds.

Standing with his arms in a boxing pose, Pietro quietly waited for Baurs beneath the ground to emerge and attempt to attack him. Feeling the rumbling beneath the ground, Pietro jumped back as Baurs jumped out of the ground and attempted to tackle Pietro, dodging her strike.

"Damn..." Bernard said as Pietro continued to side step Baurs as she swung her large front arms at Pietro. Twisting her body, Baurs attempted to swing her long rock tail against the strongman.

"Nice try." Pietro said calmly as extended his arms and grabbed Baurs tail before she struck him. Using his raw strength, Pietro begun to spin while holding Baurs tail, causing the rock lizard to spin until she was slightly above the ground as Pietro swung her through the air.

"Ahhh!" Baurs screamed as Pietro let go of her tail, sending the large rock lizard flying.

"Oh crap! Baurs, use your mud spray! Aim for the ground to soften the landing!" Bernard screamed as Corvus and Vulp looked on in worry.

Opening her mouth while overhead, Baurs shot out a torrent of muddy water from inside her body and shot it towards the ground. As it sprayed, she used it to prevent her from impacting hard against the ground from Pietros swing as Bernard rushed to her as she stood still on the ground.

"You alright?" Bernard asked as he looked over Baurs large body.

"Yes, I can still move..." Baurs said calmly as Bernard looked at Pietro.

"Good work." Pietro said as Bernards eye twitched at the sight of the large man. "You assessed the situation and then utilized the abilities of your creature to minimize the potential damage. Very astute, as I'd expect from you." He said as he gave a critical analysis.

"And now he is pretending to be a teacher like when he was training us..." Anatoli said next to Marlene and Camilla.

"Least he isn't being overly critical of the cocktails I make at the bar like usual..." Camilla said as she scratched her head.

"Hahaha..." Marlene laughed embarrassingly.

"However, you left everything up to the Earth Elemental when you should have been giving her an idea of what to do instead of swinging wildly like she did." Pietro explained. "As I have told you before, Bernard. You have leadership skills and a creative mindset, you could do better than that." He continued as Bernard started to fume with agitation.

"Grrrr…" Bernard growled as he listened to Pietro give him a lecture._ "Oh, I'll give you "creative," right up your- Wait... I just had a great idea."_ He thought with anger before he suddenly had a dark idea form in his head as he turned his head towards Vulp. Walking over, Bernard whispered his plan into the ear of the Celestial Spirit.

_"Oh great..."_ Camilla said as she watched Bernard quietly whisper to Vulp.

"Alright, round two." Pietro said as he made another battle stance. "Begin!" He screamed as he rushed towards Baurs.

"Push him back!" Bernard commanded as Baurs rushed at Pietro. Tackling into him, Pietro used his strength to push against his opponents power as the two were locked in a stalemate of force.

"A test of strength? A good show but alas..." Pietro said as he reached underneath Baurs and lifted her up with both hands over his head. "Not a good plan unfortunately for an opponent with a lot of- Huh?" He said until he looked down and noticed Vulp was standing in front of him.

"Now!" Bernard barked as Vulp opened his mouth and bit into Pietros kneecap.

"Gah!" Pietro gasped in pain as he loosened his grip on Baurs, causing the entirety of her weight to fall on top of the strongman, knocking him to the ground and pressing against his back. "Argh!" He groaned in pain as he felt Baurs crushing his backside.

"What the- What the heck was that!?" Anatoli said in annoyance as he pointed at Bernard.

"What? I don't see anything wrong..." Bernard said in a nonchalant manner.

"Pietro told you to only use the giant rock lizard! You just cheated!" Marlene complained as Camilla put her hand on her face in annoyance.

"Correction." Bernard said with a smirk to everyones confusion. "Pietro only said I could use Baurs for this exercise, he didn't say I couldn't use Corvus or Vulp at the same time in the sparring like he did in the previous fights with you two." He explained as Anatoli and Marlene looked at him with confusion and aggravation.

"That is such bull!" Anatoli said as he stood on top of his ball in protest before Pietro stood up as Baurs got off of him.

"Enough! As much as I hate to admit it, Bernard makes a point. I wasn't entirely specific when I set up the rules for this spar so he technically could use the other creatures at once." Pietro said, playing devil's advocate for Bernard.

"You can't seriously be okay with him doing that?!" Marlene said in response as Pietro bit his lip.

"So Pietro! This sparring has been quite fun!" Bernard said in a sarcastic tone as Pietro looked at Bernard with a hint of anger in his eyes. "It looks like Anatoli wants another round! Hehehe!" He snickered with glee as Anatoli rolled forward.

"Oh bring it on!" Anatoli said as he rolled on his ball. Suddenly, as Anatoli rolled, a yellow clear barrier panel formed in front of him to keep him from going forward, catching everyone off guard as everyone looked at Camilla, who had a glowing hand.

"I have a better idea." Camilla said with a disgruntled face. "How about we all calm down for a minute, go inside the bar and have a drink?" She said.

"I second that notion!" Corvus said as he raised his wing, catching Bernards attention. _"Beating your friends sounded fun at first but this is just getting cruel, kid."_ The crow thought.

"Yeah... I could take a break from this too." Marlene said in agreeance towards Camillas idea.

_"Anything to get this farce of a "training session" to be over and gives me time alone with Bernard finally."_ Camilla thought as she was hopeful that everything would finally end.

"Oh come on! I want to kick his ass for being an absolute jerk for the past few minutes!" Anatoli barked in opposition to Camillas suggestion.

"Does the term "free drinks" spark your interest?" Camilla said with a smile as Anatolis eyes widened.

"... Can I have all the gin?" Anatoli questioned in a bargaining manner as Camilla rolled her eyes.

"Yes, you can have as much gin as you can stomach." Camilla said begrudgingly.

"Deal! Woo! Let's booze it up!" Anatoli said happily as he jumped up and down on his ball.

"Hmmmm…" Pietro mumbled as he looked at Camilla.

"...Damn it..." Bernard said as he shook his head, disappointed he couldn't keep beating on his friends.

"Oh come on, kid." Corvus said as he flew onto Bernards shoulder with Vulp and Baurs approaching. "You got enough of the "stress" out of you from smacking around your friends, now it's time to knock back a couple and enjoy a relaxing day off." The crow explained as Bernard sighed in response.

"Fine... Alright." Bernard said as he scratched his head as Camilla overheard him.

_"Yes!"_ Camilla thought with glee. "Okay everybody, lets go in and enjoy the day!" Camilla said as she started to walk towards the guild with everyone, except for Pietro, as he was still standing around, deep in thought.

"Pietro?" Bernard said as he looked back and noticed Pietro.

"Bernard, I just realized something." Pietro said as he looked at Bernard, as everyone else stopped and looked back at him. "This training session isn't completely done." He said as everyone looked surprised and confused by his words.

"What does that mean?" Marlene questioned.

"Considering you have been fancying fighting against all the people who have been bothering you, I feel it might be appropriate you face off against your last "sparring partner" that's bothering you." Pietro said as he pointed his hand towards Camilla, prompting everyone to look towards Camilla with surprise.

"Wha- Me?!" Camilla said in shock. As she said that Bernard looked at Camilla as a thought went through his head.

_"Why her? The flirting is one thing but she hasn't been bothering-... Wait a_ minute..." Bernard thought as he came to a realization. _"Back in Magnolia... She practically broke my nose... That really hurt!"_ He thought as his brow furrowed as he looked at her.

"Whoa, whoa! Come on Pietro, I don't think it's completely fair we have Bernard fight Camilla." Marlene said.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to be privy for that bloodbath." Anatoli said as he rubbed the back of his head as Marlene looked at Anatoli with annoyance. "I mean! Yeah, it's totally not fair in comparison to us!" He said, trying to back peddle on what he just said.

"I am not fighting Bernard, end of discussion." Camilla said with a surprised expression as she put her hands up.

"Hold on..." Bernard said as he looked at Camilla, catching everyones attention. "I think this might be a valuable experience. I mean, we shouldn't pass up this opportunity." He said as Camilla dropped her jaw in shock.

"No! No! No! We should totally pass up this opportunity!" Camilla said nervously as she tried to avoid battling Bernard. _"What the hell is he trying to do!?"_ She thought with worry.

"Uhhh Bernie, I don't think that's such a great idea... She is an S-class wizard, you know?" Anatoli said nervously.

"Oh... I know..." Bernard said as he started to glare at Camilla, who was starting to sweat.

"Mr. Bernard?" Baurs asked as Corvus and Vulp looked at Bernard.

"Think you guys have enough interest left in you for one more fight?" Bernard said as he continued to look at Camilla.

_'"Uh_ _oh..._"' Anatoli, Marlene and Corvus thought collectively as Camilla stared at Bernard in shock.

"Before we all may enjoy the sweet taste of liquor, it looks like we have one more match for us to watch; Bernard and his pets vs. Camilla." Pietro said as he started to put his shirt back on and his muscles dispelled back to his normal shape as Bernard motioned his pets to follow him away from the guild back to the open space.

_"Someone wake me... I think I am having a nightmare." _Camilla thought as she put her hands on her face as Anatoli and Marlene looked at her depressed expression.

* * *

**This doesn't sound good... Bernard decided to use this training session to get some revenge against Pietro, Anatoli and Marlene and after several rather sadistic and malicious, borderline cheating, actions by Bernard against the people he is supposed to call "friends," Camilla tried to break up the fighting so the day could go back to her plan of giving Bernard a day off. But everything is now ruined even further because Pietro has convinced Bernard to challenge Camilla to a fight, to her chagrin and shock. Next time, Bernard vs. Camilla... Fingers crossed for the guy everyone... Yeesh...**


	31. Chapter 31

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus guildhall, 9:58 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Standing several feet from eachother was Bernard, with his pet creatures behind him, and Camilla, sporting a displeased face and her arms folded with her eyes closed. Away from them was Pietro with Marlene and Anatoli watching on as Pietro walked forward.

"Okay, let this match..." Pietro said as Bernard was ready with his creatures preparing to move behind him. "Begin!" He said as he put his arm down like a referee to begin the match between Camilla and Bernard.

"Time out!" Camilla exclaimed loudly as Bernard and the creatures tripped over eachother and fell down onto their faces from the sudden exclamation by the annoyed young woman catching them off-guard.

"What the- Hey! Why did you call for a time out?!" Bernard said as he got up slightly from the ground with Baurs, Vulp and Corvus on top of him from tripping over eachother.

"Obviously because I don't want to go through with this!" Camilla said loudly with an angry expression before turning her attention towards Pietro. "May I have a word with you?" She asked as she walked away from the battlefield towards the big man.

"Very well..." Pietro said as he sighed. "Bernard, formulate a strategy with this free time." Pietro said as he walked back towards Anatoli and Marlene with Camilla following behind.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." Bernard said impatiently as he stood back up.

"Sooo- Ahh!" Anatoli said until he was cut off by the sudden sight of Camilla using her barrier covered fist to attempt to punch Pietro, who blocked her with his own hand. "Whoa, calm down!" Anatoli muttered as he and Marlene put their hands up in an attempt to calm down Camilla.

"You stupid bald asshole!" Camilla screamed loudly as she pulled her hand out of Pietros grasp. "Why did you have to say that to him!?" She angrily questioned as she got closer to Pietro, who looked at her with a bit of hesitation on his face.

"Wait a minute, Camilla. Just wait a second!" Marlene said with worry from Camillas anger fueled expression.

"Why should I wait!? Because of this old coot, I'm in this mess!" Camilla said in a tone mixed with misery and fury. "The last thing I wanted was for Bernard to have a reason to fight me of all people and now he wants to try!" She ranted.

"Yes but... You might be able to help set him straight... With your fists." Anatoli tried to explain as Camilla just glared at him.

"I don't want to punch him!" Camilla retorted loudly. "This is the complete opposite of my entire plan for how I wanted Bernards day to go and now he is over there thinking up some crazy ideas on how to fight me!" She said as she angrily pointed to Bernard, who was talking in a huddle to his creatures.

"This training I wanted for him to do wasn't going according to plan and I couldn't have let it end with Bernard not learning anything so I thought the most logical thing at the time was to get you involved." Pietro tried to explain as Camilla continued to glare at him.

"That's a terrible idea!" Camilla said furiously. "All I wanted out of today was a goddamn date with him and you turned it into a massive disaster!" She said with her body starting to glow from her magic as the trio cowered back somewhat in fear from her anger.

"Wait!" Marlene said as she tried to calm down her friend as Camilla turned her attention towards the snake-like girl.

"What?!" Camilla said as she glowed.

"Maybe... Give it a shot?" Marlene suggested as Camilla looked at her with confusion.

"What?" Anatoli said in response as the others looked at her with confusion.

"I mean... You're one of the strongest wizards in the guild after all and... If you beat Bernard quickly and to the point he might not try ever again, he may need someone to comfort him afterwards... And it could be useful to train him like we planned..." Marlene explained in a moderately frightened tone as Camilla stopped glowing as she squinted her eyes at Pietro as she thought about her friends words.

"...Next time you decide to train him, tell me first... And then make sure it doesn't involve me... Got it!?" Camilla said with a harsh tone as she walked back towards Bernard.

"Wow... Good thinking there, sharp teeth..." Anatoli said as he and Pietro took a breath of relief as Marlene looked at Anatoli with anger. "You think she is going to fight Bernie?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I think so... But jeez... Her feelings for Bernard makes her crazy..." Marlene said as she swallowed spit.

"Hmmmm…" Pietro mumbled as he pulled on his moustache.

"What's up with you? Piss your pants?" Anatoli said jokingly.

"No, but hold down the fort for me and watch their fight. I'll be right back with an apology note for Camilla." Pietro said as he walked away from the guild as Marlene and Anatoli shrugged and watched.

Getting into position, Camilla stood where she was prior and looked at Bernard and his pets, who approached back towards his own position.

"Ready to fight now?" Bernard said with his arms folded and the creatures around him.

"...Sorta..." Camilla said with a disgruntled disposition on her face. _"If I could throw this fight, I'd seriously would..."_ She thought as she rolled her eyes.

"Good to hear... I've been waiting for a moment like this..." Bernard said with an evil smile as his eye twitched violently.

"Hey uhhh, kid? Not entirely on board with fighting your hugging pillow." Corvus said on Bernards shoulder as Bernard blushed in response.

"She isn't my- Ugh forget it! Look here..." Bernard said embarrassed before he motioned to Corvus to come closer and whispered into the crows ear. "Fight her and I'll allow you to touch her boobs and maybe tear some clothes off her as well." He whispered as the crow perked up with a smile forming on his face.

"Okay, I'm in!" Corvus said as he flew upward as Vulp and Baurs moved forward in front of Bernard.

"Alright you ready?" Bernard said as he looked at the still disgruntled Camilla.

"Fine..." Camilla said annoyed.

"Attack!" Bernard shouted as the fight begun as Baurs, Vulp and Corvus rushed towards Camilla.

Waving her glowing hand through the air, Camilla summoned a series of yellow barrier boxes as they formed around Corvus, Vulp and Baurs, trapping them in place, or in Corvus' place, knocking him to the ground. Standing still as she went back to folding her arms, Camilla looked at Bernard, whose eyes were wide in shock at his sudden and swift defeat.

"...That was less than a minute…" Anatoli said in surprise.

"Not even half of one..." Marlene replied in equal shock.

"Wha-da, how in- bah... zah?!" Bernard stuttered as he looked at Corvus, Vulp and Baurs struggling to get out of their boxes, slamming and bumping into them to get out before turning his attention back to Camilla.

"We done?" Camilla said with a stern look on her face, hoping the sparring had concluded.

"No! Let them out, we are starting over!" Bernard shouted in anger as he pointed at Camilla, who sighed in response as she dispelled her boxes around the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental. "Give us a second." He said as he motioned for the creatures to come back towards him. "You guys alright?"

"My pride is shockingly damaged. Never thought I'd see the day I felt that useless..." Corvus muttered as he scratched the back of his head with his wing as Vulp nodded in defeat.

"She has powers far exceeding ours." Baurs stated calmly as Bernards eye twitched with anger.

"No! No, we can beat her. We just need a better strategy..." Bernard said crazily. Looking at his confused and angry state, Corvus looked over to notice the relatively upset expression form on Camillas face as she stood around, disappointed.

_"Someone's not enjoying this..."_ Corvus thought as he raised an eyebrow, looking at Camilla.

_"Okay, ending this quickly didn't work... Maybe I can try overpowering him, then he will see this isn't worth doing." _Camilla pondered, hoping a new approach will end this battle she is stuck in.

"We're ready!" Bernard shouted as Camilla sighed in response.

"Fine..." Camilla replied as she stood back a few feet. _"Let's get this over with..."_ She thought as she removed her flannel shirt from around her upper body and wrapped the sleeves around her waist.

"Oh? She's taking this extra seriously now." Anatoli mutters as Camilla ties the long sleeve flannel shirt around her.

"She must really not want to do this." Marlene said as she watched with Anatoli.

"Corvus! Fire!" Bernard ordered the crow as Corvus took flight, sparking up red and white electricity around his body.

"Hiyah!" Corvus exclaimed as he fired down a bolt of lightning overhead of Camilla as she lifted up her hand.

With her arm upward and palm open, a barrier panel formed above her, blocking the lightning strike. Changing her attention back to Bernard, Camilla proceeded to rush forward in his direction.

_"Gotcha."_ Bernard thought as Camilla rushed forward towards him. "Baurs! Mud attack!" Bernard ordered as Baurs got in front of Bernard and fired a torrent of mud at the young woman.

Suddenly, Camillas body started to glow as a barrier in the shape of her body formed around her as the mud covered over her entire body with her running against the flow of the dirty water. Getting herself up close and personal to Baurs, the rock lizard was caught off guard as the barrier covered Camilla lifted up her hand in a chop style motion and slammed her shielded hand down on Baurs skull, causing cracks to form and making her fall to the ground.

"Guh!" Baurs exclaimed in pain as she was on the ground as Bernard looked over at Baurs with shock.

"Damn it! Plan B! Vulp!" Bernard ordered as Vulp split his tail into a series of tendrils and unleashed them outward towards Camilla as she dispelled her body barrier, removing all the mud from her body. Bending backwards, Camilla dodged Vulps tendrils.

Backflipping out of the way, Camilla proceeded to duck and weave out of the way of Vulps continuous strike attempts against her. As she dodged, one of Vulps tentacles lunged forward and wrapped around Camillas wrist as Vulp attempted to pull her down to the ground.

"Oh! Hey, the fox got her!" Anatoli screamed as he sat on his ball, getting into the fight.

"Don't think it's going to help much." Marlene said, catching Anatolis attention. "Camillas Barrier Magic is incredibly powerful and she is skilled at using it in a variety of ways. Long range or close range, doesn't matter, Camilla can adapt..." She explained as Camilla gripped her hand on Vulps tendril around her wrist.

As she gripped the tail, Camilla pulled back on Vulp, causing him to fly forward towards Camilla. Lifting her arm forward, she extended her elbow, that was also now covered in a small barrier, as Vulp flew chest first into it, falling to the ground and wincing in pain.

"Crap! Corvus!" Bernard exclaimed as he screamed for help from the crow Celestial Spirit.

"Coming!" Corvus exclaimed as his body sparked up and proceeded to fly over towards Camilla for an attack. "Gonna shock you to- blargh!" The crow shouted before he felt face first into a barrier panel that spawned up in midair. As he hit the barrier, he proceeded to slide off it and fell to the ground, landing on his chest. "Ugh..." Corvus groaned as he struggled to get up from the ground as he noticed Camilla wasn't even looking at him.

"She didn't even have the bird in her sightline..." Anatoli said in amazement at Camillas skill.

"She must've judged it based on the birds noisiness..." Marlene said as she scratched her head.

"H-How?!" Bernard said surprised as Camilla looked at him with an unamused look.

"The rock lizards fluid attack wasn't strong enough to keep me from moving and is better for distractions, the fox has a lot of unique attacks but he lacks the physical strength for throws so you shouldn't use it like that and the pervy crow is too much of a loudmouth so I could easily tell where he was coming from. Any more questions?" Camilla said with her arms folded as Bernard stood in bewilderment before biting his lip.

_"Damn it! Last resort time!" _Bernard thought in worry as he reached for his Lacrima pacemaker _"All I got left is Formosa, if I use its ray attack, not even Camilla could break- whoa!"_ He thought as Camilla suddenly got mere inches from his face and grabbed his hand before he could tap on his pacemaker.

"One other thing, never let your guard down." Camilla said bluntly as she twisted around while holding Bernards arm, throwing him down to the ground and slamming him onto his back. "Or you leave yourself open." She said with an annoyed tone. _"Please give up, please give up, please give up." _Camilla thought, mentally pleading to herself in hope that this training is over and done with.

"Grrrr! Damn it!" Bernard shouted as he sat up from the ground with aggravation in his eyes as he looked up at Camilla, who turned her head away in hopes that Bernard would stop glaring at her.

"Okay, we done now?" Anatoli asked as Bernard turned his angry stares towards him.

"No!" Bernard shouted angrily towards Anatoli and Marlene, who winced slightly at Bernard enraged tone.

"Seriously...?" Camilla said to herself as she put her hand on her forehead in exhaustion as Bernard stood up, dusting himself off. "Bernard, look at your help." She said as she pointed at Baurs, Vulp and Corvus on the ground.

"Bernard, they really aren't in any shape to fight anymore." Marlene said, suggesting they stop.

"...Tch, okay, come on back guys." Bernard said as he walked passed Camilla and over to Corvus and Vulp as they turned into light particles and re-entered his Lacrima before walking over to Baurs as she shrunk down back into her bracelet form, attaching herself back to Bernards wrist. "We still ain't done though!" Bernard said as he pointed at Camilla.

"What are you gonna do? Fight her by yourself?" Anatoli said as he looked confused.

"...Sure! That's what we'll do!" Bernard exclaimed loudly and crazily as Camilla, Anatoli and Marlene looked at him, flabbergasted by his decision.

_"You've got to be kidding me..."_ Camilla thought as she shook her head in disbelief as Bernard stood ready with his fists up. "I am not fighting you, this is ridiculous." Camilla said in annoyance to the whole situation.

"Oh what's wrong, you think I won't knock you down?" Bernard said with a harsh look in his eyes.

"You most definitely will not be able to knock me down but that's not the damn point!" Camilla shouted. "I'm not fighting you anymore! This is not fun for me and I don't want to hit you!" She ranted in anger.

"Will both of you calm down?!" Anatoli said loudly, catching Bernard and Camillas attention.

'"Shut up, you stupid chimp!"' Bernard and Camilla screamed simultaneously.

In the midst of their screaming, Bernard cocked back his fist and tried to strike Camilla. Noticing what he was doing, Camilla ducked under his strike and moved out of the way.

"A "sucker-punch." Really?" Camilla said with an insulted tone.

"I ain't stopping..." Bernard said while shifting his body in a way that looked like he was ready to try to punch her again. _"This is such a bad move on my part... But it's all I got left. I'm out of strategies."_ He thought desperately.

"...Oh my god, you are so stupid!" Camilla exclaimed as she put her fists up.

Cocking his fist back again, Bernard moved forward attempting to punch Camilla again but Camilla extended her fist and jabbed Bernard right in the gut. As he held his stomach, bent over, Camilla shifted back and kicked out Bernards leg, causing him to fall on his face.

Quickly getting up, Bernard swung once again at Camilla, who merely leaned back from his punches as she quickly lifted her leg up and roundhouse kicked him in the side of the head, knocking him down to the ground once more. Like clockwork, Bernard stood up, attempted to strike Camilla and then was knocked back down by either a strike or a kick by her with this sequence repeating over and over again.

The sun moved overhead as this continued for several hours, Bernard grew frustrated, Camilla grew depressed and Anatoli and Marlene grew more and more concerned as this nonstop tripping and failure occurred.

"...It's been hours now..." Anatoli said as he sat on his ball, growing increasingly bothered by the sight of Bernard making a fool of himself.

"I'm getting upset just looking at this..." Marlene said as she sat on the grass before standing back up and looked at Anatoli. "We gotta figure out some way to end this..." She said to Anatoli as they looked at Bernard taking another thud onto the ground.

"One... More..." Bernard said slowly in-between breathes as he struggled to get back up.

"I swear... Bernard, please... Just stop!" Camilla said as she stood over Bernards downed body, slightly panting.

"I... Refuse to..." Bernard said slowly, still not willing to stop. Shaking her head in disgust, Camilla turned and walked away from Bernard and proceeded to place her hand on a tree and put her other hand on her face, completely bewildered by how the whole day has transpired.

_"I feel like I'm going to be sick..."_ Camilla thought as depression started to overtake her mind.

As Bernard looked up at the sky, breathing slowly from the pain, he slowly grew more and more agitated before finally sitting back up and panting for air. Looking to the side, he noticed Marlene approached him as he looked up at her, a concerned yet serious look on her face.

"Can we talk?" Marlene said.

"I have nothing to-" Bernard spoke until he was cut off by Marlene.

"Please!" Marlene replied back, catching Bernard off guard with the sudden seriousness of her tone. Reaching her hand out to pull Bernard up, the tired young man begrudgingly accepted her offer and grabbed her hand to help himself back to his feet and then following her over to where Anatoli was.

"...Okay, I'll bite... What do you want?" Bernard said with a tone of annoyance as he looked at Marlene and Anatoli.

"Whatever problem you have with us, Pietro and Camilla... We are sorry..." Marlene said with a concerned tone.

"That's just what I- wait, what?" Bernard said before cutting himself off, realizing what she said was different than what he thought.

"Yeah, whatever it is. I'm sorry too." Anatoli said as he scratched the back of his head.

"...Where is this coming from?" Bernard said with confusion.

"It's obvious by what happened earlier with the training, you are holding a grudge against us and we are not entirely on the best footing with you still." Marlene said as she looked at Bernard, who silently just looked at the two of them in disbelief.

"Even with the time on the island and all that, even I can tell you still don't look at me, snakey here, the big man or even Camilla as "friends" so in this case, let's just be open here." Anatoli said as he stood up from his ball and locked eyes with Bernard. "Whatever problem you have with me and Marlene, Pietro and everyone else in the guild, we all deserve second chances."

"I..." Bernard mumbled, still unsure of what to say.

"We gave you one, I think you should give us one too." Marlene said as she looked at Bernard with serious eyes.

_"They... They're completely serious..."_ Bernard thought as he was shocked at Anatoli and Marlene being so serious towards him about the current situation.

"We didn't bring you back into the guild because you are a member of the guild and we need your help to get Psycho Circus back off the ground. We brought you back because you are our goddamn best friend." Anatoli said as he poked on Bernards chest.

"We care about you very much, and we want you to care about us just as much." Marlene said as she put a hand on Bernards shoulder. "Pietro feels the same way and especially Camilla... I mean, look over there." She continued as she pointed over to where Camilla was, prompting Bernard to turn his head to see a peculiar sight.

Next to the tree she was standing in front of originally, Camilla was now kneeling on the ground in an almost fetal position, her body almost losing all color from herself as she was giving off an aura of sheer sadness that made her look like she wanted to die.

"As much as I had wanted her to knock you for a loop, it's mondo obvious she really did not want to spend her day fighting you." Anatoli explained as he scratched his head whilst looking at the depressed S-class wizard.

_"I know she likes me but... Jeez, she really didn't want to fight me that much?"_ Bernard thought as he slowly started to realize what's wrong before turning back to Marlene and Anatoli.

"We didn't want to do this training with you just so you can make doing job requests easier for everyone else, we did it so we can hang out with you. Something you obviously haven't wanted to do since you came back here." Anatoli said sternly.

"I can barely fight as it is but I wanted to participate if it meant we all spend time together like when we were kids..." Marlene said as she scratched her face. As she said this, Bernard started to grow more and more ashamed at his behavior.

_"...I still haven't let this go, have I?"_ Bernard mentally asked himself. "You know... I really wasn't alright with you guys bringing me back home originally... Not going to lie, you guys were the last ones I wanted to see..." Bernard said, finally speaking up as Anatoli and Marlene listened.

"And just why was that?" Anatoli questioned.

"I... I..." Bernard stuttered, struggling to find the words to say.

"You don't have to explain anything, we already get it." Marlene said, stopping Bernard from needing to say anything else. "We apologize to you and you apologize to us. Bury the hatchet and move on and then everything is back to the way it should be. That same group of kids that used to hand out fliers for people to come see "The Greatest Show in Fiore" and were the best of friends." Marlene said with a hopeful attitude.

"Well, we are kinda older now and some of us look better now than when we were kids. Hehehe." Anatoli joked as Marlene looked at Anatoli with a look of anger as he was mocking her appearance again.

"I swear Anatoli, I am going- Oh!" Marlene spoke up until she was cut off by the sight of Bernard putting his hand up in front of her.

"If you make fun of the way she looks one more time, I'm going to deflate that ball you like and choke you out with the leftover rubber." Bernard said with half closed eyes, defending Marlene to Anatoli and Marlenes surprise.

"Hey, that was out of left field! I haven't seen you get so defensive like that since-... Since we were kids..." Anatoli said before stopping himself once he realized how Bernard just acted before Bernard started to smile at the pair.

"...Yeah, I think we are all good now guys..." Bernard said with a genuinely calm smile on his face as he looked at Marlene and Anatoli, who were sporting expressions of relief. _"I can't keep treating them like that... They don't really deserve it... They can get irritating sometimes but... They're my friends... And even after all I've done..." _Bernard thought as he lifted his arms up, albeit with some strain from his soreness from Camilla throwing him around and placed them around Anatoli and Marlenes shoulders, pulling them in to a group hug.

"This is new..." Anatoli said surprised as he hugged Bernard back and Marlene joining in.

"Don't get too used to it, it's awkward for me to do it." Bernard jokingly.

"I don't mind it." Marlene said with a smile and a cheery tone.

"Oh? What's next Marlene, you gonna fall for him like Camilla, too? Hehehe." Anatoli joked as Marlene blushed profusely as Bernard gave a wry smile from the joke as they all backed off from the hug.

"Sh-sh-shut up!" Marlene exclaimed with a red face as Bernard and Anatoli started to chuckle.

"Looks like I came back at the right time." Said a familiar voice as Bernard, Marlene and Anatoli turned their heads to see Pietro reappear. "I'm assuming by the little group hug I just saw, Bernard is acting like a decent person again?" He said with a smirk as Bernard rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Well, as decent as a guy who owns as many beanies as Bernie owns can be." Anatoli continued to joke as Bernard glared at the chimp-like man as Marlene and Pietro chuckled in response.

"So what happened with Camilla and the training?" Pietro asked.

"Knowing you, I'm pretty sure you could guess on how well it went." Bernard said with a curious tone.

"You got your ass handed to you?" Pietro asked as Bernard slumped his head in response.

"More or less but it looks like Camilla feels like the real loser here..." Marlene said as she pointed once again at the sulking Camilla.

"Hmmmm… I guess it really was wrong of me to suggest she fight Bernard, knowing how she is towards him." Pietro said as he scratched his chin.

"Not entirely sure how any of us could cheer her up." Bernard said as he looked at Camilla staring with dead eyes at the ground.

"By "us," you mean "you," right?" Anatoli said towards Bernard.

"How do you expect me to fix this?" Bernard questioned back.

"With the reason I left for so long." Pietro said as he approached Bernard and picked up his hand, placing two ticket-like objects in his palm.

"The hell is this?" Bernard said as Anatoli and Marlene looked over his shoulders at what he was holding.

"I felt I needed to give Camilla a form of apology for wasting her day when all she wanted to do was spend it with you." Pietro said as he looked at the trio. "So I did a bit of a walk through town and picked up something that you can give her to make her feel better." He continued as Bernard proceeded to read them.

'"Deluxe Passes to Hosenka Village, the greatest spa town in Fiore." Wait, I've heard of this place, this is that hot springs town near Magnolia." Bernard said after finishing to read.

"Oh! I've always wanted to go there! They have such amazing sushi restaurants, the air feels amazing from all the steam from the springs and the town just has this amazing architecture inspired from overseas culture! It sounds like the perfect place for a date!" Marlene said, gushing over the location.

"Says the woman who can't get a date to save her life." Anatoli joked, causing Marlene to sulk from his words.

"Damn it! We have one person being a "sad-sack" already, we don't need another!" Bernard exclaimed loudly as he looked at Anatoli.

"It cost a bit to procure but I think this should help out Camilla." Pietro said with certainty.

"How so?" Bernard said as he looked at the two tickets.

"Let's say a certain young man with whom she was smitten with were to ask her to accompany him to a lodge for an all-expenses paid trip to Hosenka. Wouldn't that brighten her mood?" Pietro said with a smirk as Bernard realized what he wanted him to do.

"You-wha- What?!" Bernard shouted as Marlene and Anatoli smirked at Bernards embarrassed expression. "You want me to ask her out?! No way! I can't do that!" He argued.

"You'd be around her all day which wouldn't conflict with the rules set on you, all the expenses are paid to the inn you will be staying at so you won't have to worry about food or where to sleep and it's a fairly romantic place, which is sure to make her feel all the more the happy when you ask her to come." Pietro explained as Bernard started to turn slightly blue from the prospect that he couldn't get out of this situation as he turned his attention towards the still depressed Camilla.

"Come on! Do it!" Anatoli said, trying to convince to Bernard.

"You can do this!" Marlene said cheerfully as Bernard sighed.

"Alright, fine..." Bernard said sullenly as he walked over to where Camilla was. _"A part of me is really hoping she doesn't say "yes."'_ He thought nervously. "Uh... Hey?" Bernard said to Camilla, still in a fetal position.

"...Uhhhh…" Camilla muttered as she turned her head to look up at Bernard with a drained look on her face.

"Are... You okay?" Bernard asked out of concern as Camilla looked away from Bernard, still sulking.

"...You want to fight some more...?" Camilla said depressingly as Bernard started to sweat from a combination of his nerves and Camillas disturbing position.

"Uhhh, no actually. I have something else to talk to you about." Bernard said with some embarrassment as Camilla turned back to look at him again.

"...Make it quick, please... I plan to spend the rest of the day looking at this tree rot..." Camilla said as she pointed weakly at the tree in front of her.

_"Just how depressed is she?!"_ Bernard mentally shouted in shock at her state as he looked back at everyone else with Pietro, Anatoli and Marlene giving him a thumbs up, causing him to sigh in exhaustion. "Hey, I have a question for you."

"...Huh?" Camilla mumbled as she looked at him.

"...I... Got these tickets to a place to stay overnight." Bernard said slowly.

"...That's nice... You probably want to sleep somewhere else from now on anyway..." Camilla said depressingly.

"It's for Hosenka, the spa town." Bernard said. Suddenly, as he said that, Camilla perked up as some of the color started to reappear on her body. "I got these two tickets from Pietro, they're all expenses paid for an entire day, we wouldn't have to worry about food and they get us a free room at an inn for the night." Bernard explained as he turned away from Camilla as he continued to explain, unbeknownst to Bernard that she had suddenly stood up and walked over to him. "So I was thinking that we- Ahhh!" He continued until he was suddenly spooked by the attractive young woman standing incredibly close to his face with wide eyes full of intent and breathing heavily.

"These tickets you mentioned! When are they good till!?" Camilla said frantically as she gripped Bernards shoulders tightly.

"Huh?! Ummm uh?!" Bernard mumbled as he quickly looked at the tickets to notice they were good for the entire current day. "All day today?" He responded.

"Today?! Then we have no time to lose!" Camilla exclaimed loudly as she grabbed Bernard by his arm and pulled him back towards the tent house, passing by the others. Pulling the tarp off her four-wheeled Magi-Cycle, she quickly put the SE plug on her wrist and powered up the magically powered machine.

"Hey, calm down, we don't have to rush this!" Bernard stated as Camilla pushed him onto the Magi-Cycle before getting on it herself and revving up the engine.

"Wrap your arms around me right now!" Camilla ordered towards Bernard as they sat on the Magi-Cycle.

"Y-Y-yes ma'am!" Bernard said fearfully as he tightly wrapped his arms around Camillas waist. "Just be careful on the road, please." He said with hesitation.

"Oh I'll be careful, nothing is ruining our date night!" Camilla said with a crazy smile as the pair rode off at full speed out of the woods near the guild and through the town of Hemlock as Bernard screamed at the fast speed they were going. Still back near the guild was Pietro, Anatoli and Marlene, having just watched Bernard and Camilla take off.

"Someone's happy." Anatoli joked as Marlene and Pietro smiled and nodded in response.

* * *

**Took Bernard long enough but I think we can finally say he has gotten over his personal issue with his friends in the Psycho Circus guild. With the failed attempts at trying to defeat one of the guilds strongest members in the form of Camilla, and making her slowly die a little on the inside from it happening, Bernard had a much needed conversation with Anatoli and Marlene to clear the air between them and finally forgive eachother over what had transpired. Now, with Pietro giving them the ability to do so, Bernard finally is able to spend the "quality alone time" with Camilla that she desired. But with the two of them alone at a hot springs resort town, what could possibly happen? WHAT. COULD. HAPPEN. BETWEEN. A. MAN. AND. WOMAN. AT. SAID. TOWN. WITH. HOT. SPRING. GOODNESS? Well, let's get the bathwater running because next on Menagerie, it's all about Bernard and Camilla. Til' next time, folks!**


	32. Chapter 32

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hosenka Village, 6:14, p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

The spa village of Hosenka, nearby from the home town of the Fairy Tail wizard guild known as "Magnolia." Built by a duke with a love for other cultures from overseas, it has become an amazing home for hot springs and bathhouse businesses to thrive. Within one of the towns many inns named "The Golden Breath," a certain young Psycho Circus female wizard, wearing a blue and black robe, had been standing at the front desk consorting with one of the inns workers.

"Okay, all the details have been filed miss. And here is a complimentary drink with the two passes you had." The clerk behind the desk said to the young woman as she gave her a large bottle of alcohol and two glasses as a gift for their stay.

"Thank you very much." Camilla said with a smile as she took the bottle and the glasses in her hands and started to walk back towards the rooms.

"Enjoy your stay tonight with you and your boyfriend." The clerk said casually as her words made Camilla stop where she stood and turned back towards the clerk with a bright and cheerful face.

"Thanks, I will." Camilla said calmly as she went back to walking and turned a corner into the hallway where the rooms were. Standing still and with no one watching her, her face morphed into a crazed smile filled with humorous glee as she clutched tightly on the bottle, hugging it. _'"Boyfriend!" Ahhh! Yes!_ _Yes!"_ She thought happily as she spun around in circles, practically dancing on the spot in bliss.

_"Finally, after all the bull from this morning, a real deal date!" _Camilla thought as she walked back towards the room. _"I've longed for this ever since he came back to the guild and ever since we started living together again but there hasn't been a good chance but now we are finally alone together!" _She continued to she stopped in front of the door to the inn. _"I mean, I would like to say that... But..."_

With her cheerful expression now becoming a mixture of happiness and annoyance, she opened the door to see a sight she honestly wished she wouldn't have seen. Sitting around a small table on the floor of the room, Bernard sat with Vulp on his lap holding a set of cards in his hands as Corvus held another hand of cards in his wings and Baurs stood on all fours and using her long tail to maintain a grip on a hand of her own.

"Is this the part where one of us goes "go fish?"' Baurs said confused as she held her cards.

"What the- we are playing "poker!" Who told you we were playing "go fish!?"' Corvus exclaimed loudly as he looked at the rock lizard.

"Mr. Bernard." Baurs stated as Corvus looked at Bernard with surprise.

"...Okay fine, I lied so it would improve my odds." Bernard said disgruntled as Vulp continued to lay in Bernards lap as his tail wagged behind him.

_"...Did he really have to bring his stupid animals along?" _Camilla thought with a twitch in her eye as she silently watched the group play cards. Growing annoyed, Camilla walked over and slammed the bottle of alcohol down on the table, startling the group.

"Ahh! The hell?!" Corvus exclaimed as he dropped his cards with everyone looking up at her.

"If you don't mind me asking..." Camilla said with a twitch in her eye as she looked at Bernard. "Why did you bring them along with us?" She said with a tone of agitation.

"You are the one that yanked me out of Hemlock and forced me onto your Magi-Cycle with all of them along inside me. Kind of hard to tell them to "stay home" when they live under my skin." Bernard explained as Camilla turned her head back towards Corvus, who was giving her a lustful look as she just got more annoyed before getting an idea in her head.

"Hey, Bernard... I forgot something, you think you could get it for me? I got us this bottle of bourbon and I didn't have enough hands to get ice so could you be a dear and get some, please?" Camilla said as she looked at Bernard.

"Huh? Okay I guess." Bernard said as he stood up, Vulp getting off his legs in response, and walked out of the room and leaving behind all the creatures and Camilla.

"Well, now that the card game cheater has left, maybe we could enjoy this booze and- Eep!" Corvus said until he was shocked by Camilla turning back towards the creatures and giving Baurs, Vulp and Corvus a relatively nasty look.

"Okay, I am only going to say this once... I want you "things" to stay in here and not interrupt me and Bernards night, alright? This is private alone time between the two of us." Camilla explained as she folded her arms and looked at the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental.

"You heard the kid, sexy legs. We are kind of a "package deal."' Corvus replied as Camilla scratched her head.

"Fine, I understand that but couldn't all of you have just stayed inside of him and not interrupt us?" Camilla questioned.

"Mr. Bernard wanted to see how we were doing after you practically destroyed us." Baurs said calmly as Camilla made a relatively embarrassed expression.

"Oh... Right, sorry about earlier." Camilla said as she realized she hadn't apologized to Bernards monsters.

"Then the kid asked to play cards with me and Vulp just wanted to hang out on Bernards lap and Baurs was like "May I learn?" And junk." Corvus rambled as he sat on the ground as Vulp looked at the doorway, waiting for Bernard to come back into the room as Camilla noticed.

"Look, I understand spending time with your "master" is something you guys like doing but this is not the best time for me." Camilla argued as she looked around as Corvus made a surprised face.

"The kid isn't my master!" Corvus said in a defensive way as Baurs and Vulp looked at the crow.

"He isn't? I thought he was?" Baurs said as she looked at Corvus with Vulp looking at him with judging eyes.

"Hey, don't you look at me like that!" Corvus said towards Vulp as Camilla looked at the Celestial Spirits with a smirk.

"Oh? With how many times you listen to his orders, I thought you'd be calling him "master" now instead of "kid" all the time? Hehehe." Camilla chuckled as Corvus grew embarrassed.

"Sh-shut up!" Corvus said as he flailed his wings wildly. _"He isn't my master..._ _But..._" The crow thought begrudgingly.

"Jokes aside, I need you all to make me a promise and that is to leave me and him alone just for tonight, got it?" Camilla said as she hardened her expression.

"Just out of curiosity." Corvus said as he spoke up, catching the S-class wizards attention. "What exactly in your mind is your "plans" for him this evening?" He continued as Camilla sighed.

"Alright then, maybe if I give you an idea as to how this night will go, you will understand why I don't want you to interfere." Camilla stated. "First, me and Bernard are going to go to this nice little sushi restaurant in town and enjoy a delicious meal together." She said as she begun to explain her plan.

_"Did she seriously plan out the whole date?"_ Corvus thought with a raised eyebrow.

"Then, with sweet fresh air from the bathhouses and the moonlight shining overhead, we will walk down the streets, arm in arm as we digest the food and drinks." Camilla explained with a smile forming on her face as the mental images passed through her head. "Then we head to the bathhouses and start the real fun stuff; bathing together in the mixed baths. I wash his back, he washes mine and then everything will be ready for the next part... The best part..." She said as her face started to turn red and she was becoming aroused by her thoughts.

"Let me guess; the "coup de grace?"' Corvus asked as Vulp and Baurs continued to listen.

"We come back here, and then, under the sheets... Ahhhh! It's too embarrassing!" Camilla said with glee as she put her hands on her cheeks and blushed profusely from what she was expecting for later that night.

"Wooow…" Corvus said unenthusiastically.

"So in other words..." Camilla said as she hardened her expression as she turned back towards the creatures. "Stay here and leave us alone tonight." She said with a strict tone.

"Very well, if you insist." Baurs said, complying with Camilla as Vulp begrudgingly nodded.

"Seriously? You guys are just going to stay here?" Corvus said to his fellow creatures. "Cause I sure as hell am not without some kind of incentive." He smirked as he looked at the annoyed expression Camilla was giving him.

"You know, if it wasn't for the fact Bernard likes you, I might have destroyed you during the training today and sent you back to the Celestial Spirit world." Camilla said with an angry glare and a twitching smile.

"These two can easily be bought out if you bring up the kid but I'm a different story. What's your offer?" Corvus said, bargaining with the young woman.

_"He's the one I want pestering us the least... Guess I have no choice."_ Camilla thought as she motioned for Corvus to come over to where she was. Following her directive, Corvus waddled over to her as the two turned around, their backs facing Vulp and Baurs as they looked on in curiosity of what they were discussing.

As they finished talking, Corvus waddled back towards the others but unlike before, he had his beak dripping with blood and a content look on his face as Camilla made an expression of embarrassment as she readjusted her robe near her chest area.

"Happy now?" Camilla said as she looked at the crow.

"Fine. We'll stay." Corvus said as he looked at the woman with a smile on his face.

"Good. We'll be back later so hold on for awhile if you all get hungry." Camilla explained as she noticed the door to the room had slid open with Bernard returning, now with a bucket full of ice.

"Wasn't sure how much you wanted so I got a lot." Bernard said with a heavy bucket in his hands.

"Oh don't worry about it, you can just leave that for them." Camilla said as she took the bucket out of his hands and rested it on the table. "For now…" Camilla said as she gave him a soft look as she grabbed him by his hand as she got real close to him. "Let's go have some fun."

"Uhh! O-okay?" Bernard said with some hesitance as she wrapped her arms around his left arm and begun to pull him out of the room, leaving behind the creatures.

_"Good luck kid, she's a handful... With a killer rack. Hehehe." _Corvus thought as he picked up the large booze bottle and started to uncork the bottle.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sushi Restaurant. 6:53 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Sitting at the bar of the sushi restaurant was Bernard and Camilla as they watched their middle aged chef, who had closed eyes and a forehead that reached the ceiling, make their food. As he finished prepping the rice and raw fish, the duo looked on in surprise as they were presented a large assortment of sushi.

"Here. Say "Ah" and try this." Camilla said as she had a piece of sushi held between a pair of chopsticks and presented it to Bernard for him to eat, causing him to swallow spit in nervousness as he looked at her happy expression.

"Ahh..." Bernard said as he opened his mouth as Camilla put the sushi onto his tongue as he chewed the fish and rice, surprisingly enjoying it. "Wow, that was actually pretty good."

"I know right! Sushi is awesome!" Camilla said happily as she took another piece of sushi for herself.

"What's it made of actually?" Bernard said, not entirely sure of what it's made of.

"Well it's got rice and seaweed and... Fish." Camilla said before realizing what she just put in her mouth. "...Excuse me?" She said as she asked the middle aged chef with the giant forehead. "Did this fish had wings at one point before you cut it up?" Camilla said as she and Bernard started to turn blue with worry.

Following the question, the chef turned his head left and right to signify a negative response. Upon seeing this, Camilla and Bernard breathed a sigh of relief upon knowing that the fish they were eating this evening isn't winged fish, their old nemesis.

"Close call there..." Bernard said as he looked at Camilla.

"No kidding." Camilla said.

"It took me close to a week after that whole train wreck at Akane Beach to even be able to look at a fish." Bernard said as he scratched his head.

"Last thing I want to remember tonight was that day..." Camilla said disgruntled.

"Oh yeah, sorry..." Bernard said embarrassed.

"Talk about ruining things." Camilla said as she picked up another piece of sushi and ate it.

"At least I don't ruin things as often as Corvus or Anatoli does with their asinine comments." Bernard said as he ate as well. "When we got captured in the capital, the first thing Corvus said was to make a statement about how cute the princess of Fiore was." He joked as Camilla chuckled.

"No shocker there. Hehehe." Camilla said in response. "Anatoli awhile ago made some dumb comment about a job he went on where he had to wear a specific costume and he complained he couldn't roll around on his ball or go places without wearing a shirt." She continued.

"You ever hear the story as to why he hates wearing shirts?" Bernard said, making small talk.

"No, that was before I even knew him. As long as I have known Anatoli, he has tried to avoid wearing shirts." Camilla said.

"Okay so, awhile back when he was six, we learned he was allergic to cotton because he got this really terrible rash on his arms and chest and we learned it was because of the shirts he owned. Next thing we knew, he started to come into the guild topless and he started getting these tans to cover up the old redness he got from the rash. Hahaha!" Bernard reminisced as he and Camilla started to laugh.

"Oh wow really?! He's so weird!" Camilla said in-between laughs.

"He really is a monkey. Hehehe." Bernard said with a smile.

"Nice smile." Camilla said as she noted Bernards genuinely happy expression.

"...Yeah, well. I guess after everything that happened earlier today, I guess I am starting to feel better about being around." Bernard said in response.

"Glad to hear. Makes me happy to know you are going to be less of a sourpuss." Camilla said happily as she rested her head on his shoulder as they sat at the bar, prompting Bernards face to turn red in embarrassment and arousal.

_"Guh! I mean, I would like to say I'm starting to feel better about being around but a certain girl I know can't stop clinging to me!" _Bernard thought as he turned his head to avoid trying to stare at Camillas romantic gaze and her chest that was pressing against his arm as she leaned against him.

_"Come on, put your arm around my shoulder, you know you want to..." _Camilla thought with a smirk as she looked at the sheer anxiety on the face of the man she liked.

An hour passed by as the two proceeded to walk out of the restaurant and into the brightly lit streets of Hosenka as they walked around the cobblestone roads and the fresh scent of the air mixed with the steam from the many bathhouses made their surroundings smell incredible.

"Haaa… The air feels nice around here." Camilla said blissfully as she and Bernard walked on the stone sidewalks of the town.

"Can't wait to get to the bathhouses." Bernard said casually as he walked as he scratched at his Lacrima pacemaker.

Noticing Bernards bent left arm he was using to scratch at his left side, Camilla smiled at the realization of an opportunity she didn't want to miss as her eyes shined for a bit. Reaching her arms once again around Bernards bent arm, tightly intertwining her right hands fingers with Bernards left hand, Camilla got close to Bernard and rested her head on his shoulder once more as they walked together.

"Guh!..." Bernard mumbled in surprise as Camilla held onto Bernards arm as his face blushed slightly.

"What's wrong? Feeling flustered? Hehehe." Camilla chuckled as she tightly clung to Bernards side.

"N-nothing! Just... Ummm…" Bernard stuttered, unable to answer.

"Now it really feels like we are on a date." Camilla said happily as she looked at Bernard.

"R-right... A date..." Bernard said with hesitation. _"I got to do something about this "date" thing before things get too out of hand between me and her. Need to make this seem more casual... Oh, maybe more small talk like earlier! That could work!" _He thought as he had an idea. "Soooo... How was everyone after you all stopped searching for me the first time?" Bernard said as he tried to make small talk.

"Huh? Oh. Well, everyone basically went back to what they were doing for awhile until everyone stopped coming up with ideas for their acts. Chester, Gigantia and Silencio joined up too so we got them to bolster the guilds numbers." Camilla explained.

"What about Anatoli and Marlene and the others? How were they doing on their own?" Bernard asked.

"Anatoli was being "Anatoli" as usual; drinking, picking fights, showing off. Your typical "guild idiot." Every time Chester showed up from his excursions with his group, Anatoli would try to pick a fight and the two would go head to head." Camilla reminisced as they continued to walk through the streets.

"Who won the most?" Bernard questioned out of curiosity.

"They tied a lot but I think Chester is in the lead. He's stronger than he looks, as you can probably tell." Camilla said as she looked at Bernard.

"Yeah but he is not stronger than you." Bernard replied.

"He's come close to becoming S-class before. But time after time, I have managed to slip away from him. He has tons of those puppets on hand at any given time with lots of different skills. Kinda like you and the beasts you have but he has more training with them." Camilla explained as Bernard became disgruntled at the near criticism she gave him.

"Thanks for the compliment..." Bernard said sarcastically.

"Oh calm down, it's not like that's something that should concern you that much." Camilla said in a reassuring tone.

"Do you think it would concern me as much as Marlene gets bothered by how she can't get a boyfriend? Hehehe." Bernard joked as Camilla put her hand on her forehead.

"Don't get me started, she's practically my best friend but the moment you bring up her appearance or her love life, she becomes instantly depressed..." Camilla said, slightly annoyed.

"She's been like that since we were children, I'd figure by now she'd have outgrown getting so upset about the way she looks." Bernard replied. "I remember kids in town used to make fun of her and I would always try to defend her by throwing rocks at them. Good times. Hehehe." He said as he remembered the joyous feeling of pelting bullies with rocks to the point they got bloodied.

_"You're such a sadist."_ Camilla thought with a wry smile as she awkwardly looked at Bernards happy face. "You know, she's grateful to you for helping her out all those times. She has a rather high opinion of you." She said as Bernard looked at her with confusion.

"It's not that big of a deal." Bernard said, trying to wave off the compliment.

"No really, she really likes the fact you are back in the guild. A lot of people are." Camilla said with a comforting voice.

"I'm not "technically" back in the guild. I'm still just the "mule" for everyone to use." Bernard said as he scratched the back of his head as Camilla made an annoyed expression from his remark, prompting her to tighten her hold on his arm.

"No one views you as a mule, they view you as a member of the guild that they respect, myself included." Camilla said as she got closer to Bernards face to show him her seriousness.

"Tell that to Pietro, Mr. "lock the boy on an island for a few days."' Bernard countered.

"Granted, I wasn't a huge fan of his plan but seeing the results, it worked out. Besides, he only did that because he wanted you to get better." Camilla explained.

"What's next? You gonna tell me he views me as "the son he never had?" Hehehe." Bernard joked as Camilla looked away for a minute.

_"He's not technically wrong there..."_ Camilla thought with an awkward expression. "Anyway, think about it. You got Pietro backing you, Marlene and Anatoli are on your side again. And me, don't forget." She said with a smile as she caught Bernards attention.

"...A lot of this is all hard for me to comprehend now. I feel like this all just happened so fast and I still haven't completely caught up on it." Bernard said. "It's been two years since I left Psycho Circus and now it's been a month since I left Hargeon and suddenly, I went from "some guy with a heart problem" to a "wizard with a heart problem."

"It's better than being "just some guy."' Camilla replied.

"Yeah I guess, it's still weird though. I own a giant slime demon and a big Elemental made of rocks." Bernard said with exhaustion.

"Huh?" Camilla muttered. "What do you mean?" She questioned.

"Formosa and Baurs, I technically own them based on the situation I am in." Bernard tried to explain.

"Yeah, and Corvus and Vulp too, right?" Camilla said with a raised eyebrow.

"Not technically. The whole reason I even left Hargeon was because of them but given the situation the three of us are in, they are kinda forced to be stuck with me until I can find them a legitimate Celestial Spirit wizard. Corvus likes to mess around with me and Vulp can be extremely clingy and I'm their friend but I definitely am not their "master" or anything." Bernard said as Camilla made a contemplative face.

_"I think you're the only one that thinks that though..."_ Camilla thought with a troubled face as she looked at Bernard.

"Feels nice though to get some fresh air and calm- What the hell?!" Bernard said until he was caught off guard by a sight that perplexed him as the pair stopped walking, Camilla turning to look and blushing profusely at the same thing Bernard was looking at.

Standing in front of the pair on a corner was a pair of men with spikey hair, one with grey-ish white hair and the other with black-ish blue hair, stark naked in their birthday suits, having a stare-down, as if they were about to fight eachother. Nearby, a young woman with long wavy blue hair wearing a black and blue robe, similar to the ones Bernard and Camilla had on, with two robes in her hands, looking on with a worried expression.

"Well, well! Fancy seeing you here, Gray!" Said the man with grey-ish white spikey hair to the other nude male named Gray.

"Lyon, you bastard! What are you even doing here?!" Gray said to the other nude male named Lyon.

"I came here to relax! Obviously! And I see you came here with the beautiful Juvia. A date perhaps?" Lyon said with a tone of aggression.

"I am not, you freaking jerk!" Gray shouted in response as he looked at Lyon as Lyon glanced at the blue haired woman named Juvia.

_"The love triangle, it's becoming too much for me! Ahhh… My darling Gray, as much I love your physique, could the both of you put your clothes on?"_ Juvia thought with worry as she struggled to try and not sneak a peek on the pair of arguing men in their naked states.

_'"The hell is going on here?"' _Bernard and Camilla thought with confusion simultaneously. Turning their heads, Bernard and Camilla walked away, trying to avoid becoming involved.

"That... Was something..." Camilla said with surprise as they managed to walk some distance away from the scene they saw.

"You hear that one guy mention something about a "date?" Kinda familiar huh?" Bernard said to Camilla.

"Hey, I wouldn't be standing around to the side and letting you fight some guy in your underwear." Camilla said with a smirk.

"I saw you sneaking a peek, you were checking out one of those two." Bernard said with a smirk on his face to Camillas chagrin.

"H-how am I supposed to not look!? They were acting like nuts in the middle of public, about to have a nude wrestling match!" Camilla said in her defense with a red face.

"Guess more muscular guys like them are more your type huh?" Bernard said as he looked away from Camilla until he felt her tightening her grip around his arm and hand.

"Muscles don't mean much to me..." Camilla said with a stern facial expression as Bernard. _"I know what you are thinking buster..." _

_"Damn it... Didn't think she would say that..."_ Bernard said with a slight blush as he looked away as the duo turned a corner. "Blurhg!" Bernard grunted as he felt himself bump into something and fell backwards onto his butt. "Ow!" He muttered as he rubbed his bottom in pain.

"Hey, you alright?" Camilla said as she kneeled down to check on him.

"Yeah, I am fine." Bernard said as he looked at Camilla before turning his attention towards the person he bumped into.

A tall man stood in front of Bernard and Camilla, his large black hair jutted in various directions in the form of large afro-esque spikes with a red bandanna around his forehead. Sporting a blue leather jacket with a red shirt and a pair of white pants with blue boots, he had a large nose, chin beard and a thug-like expression on his face. Alongside his attire, he had a white sash around his arm with a symbol of a blue wolf on it.

"...Huh?" The large man mumbled.

"What have we here?" Said a smaller man next to the large man.

The smaller man was dressed in an oriental style white button up shirt with green trim, black pants and small black shoes with no socks. His hair was in the style of a large braided tail going down his backside with several red kanji-like letters on his face with a blue sash on his arm with a white wolf symbol. Most oddly, however, was the large frying pan-like weapon he held in his hands behind his back.

"Can we help you?" The small man with the frying pan said.

"Hey, big bro. This beanie wearing punk just bumped into me." The larger man said to the smaller man, referring to him as his elder brother.

"S-sorry. Didn't mean to." Bernard said as he started to stand up with Camilla following suit.

'"Sorry?"' The larger man said to Bernard with an annoyed expression as he approached, looming over Bernard. "You think you can just walk on by and bump into me and not expect to show some respect?" The large man said as he bent down somewhat and stared Bernard in the eyes, threateningly.

"...Pardon?" Bernard said confused and slightly scared.

"You heard my younger brother." The smaller man said as he approached. "You bump into people like us and think it's okay to just say "sorry" and all's well that ends well?" He said threateningly to Bernard as he also approached.

"What the- Argh!" Bernard said until he was caught off guard by the big man grabbing him by the front of his robe, slightly lifting him off his feet.

"Obviously, you don't know who you are talking to. We're the Vanish Brothers from the Southern Wolves, a mercenary guild." The large man said, revealing himself and the smaller man to be the Vanish Brothers.

"Mer-mercenaries?" Bernard said with confusion as he swallowed spit.

"Today's not your lucky day. Scuffing up my little brothers clothes." The elder Vanish Brother said as he pointed his frying pan-like weapon at Bernard in his younger brothers hands.

"Better have some Jewel on hand, punk." The younger Vanish Brother said as Bernard started to get nervous as his robe got loose slightly as the younger Vanish Brother noticed a gem stone under his clothes, lodged in his chest. "Huh, what we have here?" The younger Vanish Brother said as he spotted Bernards pacemaker.

"Holding out on us with an expensive looking Lacrima? And here we thought you looked like some broke bum." The elder Vanish Brother said with a smirk as the younger brother reached into Bernards robe and tried to pull on his pacemaker.

"Hey! Don't touch that, I need that to live!" Bernard said as he tried to push off the large hand that to take out his Lacrima. _"Crap! I don't have anybody on hand right now and he isn't pressing on it to call out Formosa!"_ Bernard thought with worry.

"Shut up you idiot." The younger Vanish Brother said as he looked at Bernard with annoyance, cocking back an arm as he was ready to punch him.

Suddenly though, as the younger Vanish Brother was about to get ready to punch Bernard, Camilla intervened by slapping the younger brothers arm with her hand covered in a barrier orb, causing him to drop Bernard back to his feet as he grabbed his forearm in pain.

"Gah! What the hell!" The younger Vanish Brother said in pain as he rubbed his forearm as he and his elder brother looked on at Camilla, standing in front of Bernard.

"Had your fun? Sorry, but we don't have any money worth giving out and the Lacrima is important so just leave." Camilla said sternly as the two brothers looked at her with aggressive intent.

"Yo bro, look at her chest, you see that little bit of a guild logo there?" The younger Vanish Brother said to his brother.

"Indeed. Tell me, miss, what guild are you from? A wizard guild?" The elder Vanish Brother said as he pointed his frying pan at Camilla.

"Psycho Circus." Camilla replied.

"Never heard of it." The younger Vanish Brother said as he cracked his knuckles.

"Haven't heard of you guys either..." Camilla said as she folded her arms as the two brothers suddenly felt offended.

"Them's fighting words, girlie!" The younger Vanish Brother shouted back.

"Looks like we are going to have to teach you why the Vanish Brothers are the best mercenaries in the kingdom." The elder Vanish Brother said calmly as struck a combative pose.

_"These guys have a death wish?" _Bernard thought as he looked at Camilla, glowing from her magic.

"Give me two minutes..." Camilla said towards Bernard. _"I'm going to break so many bones in these guys for almost ruining our date..."_ She thought angrily.

"Don't have to tell me twice..." Bernard said as he walked away back in the other direction towards where the inn they were staying at was. _"Think I'll go take a bath..."_ He thought as he walked away.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Golden Breath Inn, 8:23 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

After close to an hour beating the living tar out of the Vanish Brothers, Camilla finally came back home after walking home from the brawl.

"Stupid mercenaries..." Camilla said to herself under her breath with an exhausted tone. _"Can't believe I had to get into a damn fight while on my freaking date, working up a sweat... Well... At least they aren't pestering us anymore..."_ She thought as she scratched her head as she walked back into the inn.

Looking around for Bernard, she made a disgruntled look as she struggled to find him before turning her head back to the receptionist desk.

"Excuse me, did you happen to see the guy I was with earlier tonight? Ashen hair, wearing a beanie, rock in his chest?" Camilla asked at the front desk.

"Oh? Ah, yes, I did see him just a few minutes ago. He went over there." The receptionist said as she pointed in the direction to where the hot springs were.

_"The bathhouse area? Dang, he is probably already in the men's bath..."_ Camilla thought as she looked in the direction of where the baths were. "Okay, thank you."

"Oh by the way miss." The receptionist said before Camilla got to the entrance to the changing rooms.

"Yes?" Camilla said in response.

"The man you were with asked me if we had a "mixed bathing" area and I told him it was the changing room in the middle that led to the area where the mixed baths were. Figured I'd let you know." The receptionist said casually as Camillas eyes widened.

Without a moment to spare, she quickly rushed into the middle changing room past the entrance to the bathhouse, passing the men's bath and the women's bath. Inside the mixed changing room, Camilla looked around as she looked at a basket in the room and noticed a pair of boxer shorts and a beanie left inside.

_"This is definitely Bernards... But why the mixed bath?"_ Camilla thought with curiosity as she looked at the doorway to the hot spring. _"Unless..."_ Camilla continued to think as an idea formed in her head as her eyes started to sparkle with delight and happiness. _"Ohohoho Bernard... I knew you couldn't keep up the "hard to get" act all night..."_ She thought with a mischievous smirk forming on her face as she undid the sash to her robe.

* * *

**And scene! Welp! Here is the end of the Chapter! Yup! Definitely ending things here! Definitely not cliffhanging people from Bernard and Camilla doing something particularly "naughty!" Oh calm down, somethings bound to happen in the next chapter for the pervy people out there. After arriving in Hosenka, Camilla made her intentions clear as to how she wanted the night to go; Her and Bernard ending up as close as possible. But some pratfalls aside, such as nearly getting worried over eating winged fish again and running into the mercenaries known as the Vanish Brothers, the date has been relatively fine... But now Bernard is suspiciously bathing in the mixed bathing area and Camilla seems primed to join him. Will they just take a normal bath together or... You know... Till next time... **

**Authors Note: (This was another cut down... Sorry to disappoint where I cut it down at ;P)**


	33. Chapter 33

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Golden Breath Inn, 8:26 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

In the outdoor mixed bathing area, a stark naked Bernard, with only a towel laid across his thighs to cover his groin, sat on a small stool in front of a series of sinks and spray nozzles for cleaning oneself, nearby from a large and spotless hot spring. Cleaning his frontal area before wiping down his Lacrima pacemaker, Bernard sat with a calm and relaxed expression.

_"Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Bernard O'Halloran and I am a total genius. Most people probably do not know this but the mixed bath area is predominately the least utilized space of all, when it comes to hot springs places like this. The women's and men's baths are typically used more and over time, can get incredibly dirty from the used water. And when it comes to this bathing area, a couple that intends to use it is always going to change their mind from coming in once they see its occupied by a man, such as myself. In other words; a nice untouched bathing area just for me!" _Bernard thought in his head with an evil smirk as if he was narrating to an audience.

"Haaaa… This feels really nice." Bernard said aloud to himself as he continued to wipe his pacemaker with a cloth. _"Used to go to places like this all the time when I lived in Hargeon, kinda missed this atmosphere." _He thought calmly as he scratched at his feet, unbeknownst to him that the door to the mixed bath slowly opened as he continued to clean himself.

"Hope all is well with Camilla and those two idiots." Bernard said to himself as he grabbed a sponge off the floor as he remained seated.

"What's that? You worried about me? Hehehe." Said a familiar voice as a spine-tingling sensation ran up Bernards backside.

His face turning slightly blue with a red blush on his cheeks, Bernard slowly came to a realization of who was behind him as he nervously turned his head to look in the direction behind him. His eyes widening and his feelings of anxiety reaching their peak, he looked back and saw a certain someone standing behind him.

"Hey there." Camilla said with a smile on her face as she was dressing in merely a towel around her body with her hair tied back in a long ponytail. As she said that, Bernard dropped the sponge and cloth he was using to clean himself in complete shock as he quickly turned his head back forward while tightly closing his eyes and putting his hands on his groin out of reflex.

"Wha-wha-what the hell are you doing in here?!" Bernard stammered in embarrassment.

"Mixed bath area, obviously I came in here to clean myself." Camilla said as she looked towards the bath.

"Tha-that's not what I mean! Why are you in here with me!?" Bernard questioned crazily as he nervously tried to avoid looking back at Camilla standing behind him.

"Well..." Camilla said as she turned her attention back towards Bernard, an aroused smirk forming on her face as she walked closer towards him. "I was thinking we could have a bit of fun..." She said as she placed her hands on Bernards shoulders from behind as she bent forward and placed her face close to his ear.

"Whahaha?!" Bernard muttered as he turned his head back towards Camilla and noticed her face incredibly close to his as he bit down on his lip.

"Sadly, it looks like you already washed your entire front." Camilla said as she wrapped her arms around Bernards upper body and rested her chin on his shoulder, his body stiffening in nervousness in the process.

"Ye-yeah! I just did it so can you please get off me?!" Bernard bellowed in a nervous tone as he turned his head away in an attempt not to make eye contact with the attractive young woman clinging to his backside.

"But I don't think you have done your back yet... Hehehe." Camilla said with a sly look on her face as Bernard swallowed spit as he realized what she was trying to do. "Maybe I can help with that." She said as she grabbed the sponge Bernard dropped and walked over to the spray nozzles to grab one from off the rack.

_"Oh no..."_ Bernard thought as his face turned slightly blue. "No-no! I don't need any help there! Thank- pfurh!" Bernard said until he noticed the feeling of something pressing against his sides.

Before Bernard could continue to complain, Bernard was getting crushed at his sides by a pair of barrier panels Camilla had created as she put her hand up. Turning back, she made a serious face as Bernard struggled to move as the barriers continued to press on him.

"Will you stop fighting me please? It's not like this is going to be painful for you, so just relax, you crazy worrywart." Camilla said as Bernard stopped struggling in his stool as Camilla dispelled her panels so he can sit down.

_"Damn it... No getting out of this..."_ Bernard thought as he just looked down to try to avoid staring at Camilla as she walked back over to him with a nozzle and the sponge, now covered in a cleansing soap.

"Good... Now sit still." Camilla said with a smile on her face as she started to rub Bernards back.

"Hiii!... Faaahh…" Bernard stuttered as Camilla soothingly rubbed his back with the sponge. _"Damn, why can't she make this quick!?" _He thought as he noticed how slowly Camilla was washing his back, as if to make him enjoy the sensation.

"Does it feel good?" Camilla said with a smile to see Bernards reaction.

"It-it's fine! Just fine! Thank you ma'am!" Bernard said, struggling to talk. _"Craaappp! Any more of this stuff and I am going to have an explosive nosebleed like Anatoli or Corvus or something stupid like that! I feel stiffer than a god damn board too!"_ He internally screamed in his own head.

_"As much fun as this is, I need him to act more open... Maybe I can ask him something." _Camilla thought as she moved her hands around. "When you lived in Hargeon, how did you keep clean?" She questioned suddenly.

"Huh?" Bernard mumbled in surprise.

"You lived in a closet right? How'd you keep clean without a bathroom or shower?" Camilla said as she started to wipe his shoulders.

"Well, there was a place in town I went to on a weekly basis to wash myself. I tried to work long hours so I built up a sweat and every time I got a bit of money, what wasn't spent on food or rent, I used it to bathe at a place in Hargeon." Bernard explained as he continued to blush from the feeling of Camilla touching him.

"Wow, I'm glad I wasn't around to smell you during a busy week." Camilla joked.

"Hey, I didn't smell that- bad..." Bernard said, turning his head back to complain until he stopped to notice Camillas attractive form kneeling behind him and saw her nipples sticking out slightly from her towel. Upon seeing this, Bernard continued to stare at her chest, prompting Camilla to smile and blush at his obvious looking.

"Pervert. Hehehe." Camilla joked as Bernard noticed what he was doing and turned away, back to the direction he was facing before.

"Do-don't mock me!" Bernard said loudly as he closed his eyes tightly as he faced away.

With a smirk on her face, Camilla took this opportunity to reach underneath Bernards arms and start to wash his chest, to his surprise.

"I-I already washed that!" Bernard said in shock.

"Yeah, but not very well. Figured I could try it this time." Camilla said with a smile as she rested her head on Bernards shoulder once again from behind with her pressing her breasts against him. "Feels nice, doesn't it?" She said as she moved her hands on his chest.

"Gruh! Pugh!" Bernard mumbled as Camilla scrubbed around his belly and sides.

_"Calm down, it's not so bad."_ Camilla thought as she tightened her grasp on him to keep him from moving.

"E-enough!" Bernard said loudly as he slipped his arms through her hold and stood up and quickly rushed into the hot spring.

"Oh darn and here I thought you were gonna wash my back for me." Camilla said with a smug expression as she sat on the bath stool, looking at Bernard as he sat in the water.

"You-you're gonna have to do that yourself!" Bernard shouted as he sat in the water. _"Damn you, incredibly hot woman who keeps making me feel turned on! Gaaahh!" _He thought wildly and aroused.

"So tell me more about what you were up to in Hargeon." Camilla asked as she removed her towel and started to clean herself. '

"Hmmmm… I worked for an old guy at a thrift shop for used clothes." Bernard said as he scratched his head, his eyes glancing back somewhat as Camilla washed herself.

"You? Selling clothes? That's different from what I expected you to be doing." Camilla said as she washed her hair.

"What did you think I would be doing?" Bernard said confused.

"Pickpocketing?" Camilla said bluntly as Bernard felt like he had been stabbed by an arrow of insult.

"Why the green hell would I be living off pickpocketing?!" Bernard said insulted.

"Knowing you, I thought you would start some kind of criminal racket. You're smart, you probably could have done something and got away with it." Camilla said with a smirk as she glanced over at him.

"Was that some kind of joke?! Tell me now!" Bernard said angrily.

"I'm only kidding, take a chill pill. Hehehe." Camilla said with a laugh. "I'm glad you found some work but I am surprised you didn't find something more your skillset. Like leading a show troupe or something." She continued.

"If I had a job like that, I would just be reminded too much of home and it would leave me feeling like garbage when I sleep at night." Bernard said disgruntled.

"Here's another question; what's the big plan?" Camilla asked.

"What "big plan?"' Bernard questioned back.

"After this whole "return the Celestial Spirits" thing you keep mentioning." Camilla wondered as she cleaned her body.

"Well... I need to figure out what to do with Formosa and Baurs… Now that I have this whole contract thing with Baurs, it makes things more complicated." Bernard said as he scratched his face.

"Why don't you just keep all of them? It doesn't sound that difficult for you to do." Camilla said persuasively.

"It's not easy knowing that I have a bunch of creatures living under my skin." Bernard said as he looked at the water.

"Creatures that like being around you and don't mind listening to you. Something a lot of people wished they had for a talent." Camilla said as she stood up and walked over to the rack and placed the spray nozzle back.

"I wouldn't say it's a talent, it's more like an annoying quirk." Bernard said nihilistically.

"Oh knock it off, stop being so melancholy. It's really annoying." Camilla said unhappy.

"Sorry if it's easy to complain about." Bernard said in response.

"I keep saying it over and over again; you have it better off then most so you shouldn't whine about it." Camilla said as she looked at where Bernard was sitting.

"Hmmmm…" Bernard mumbled.

"Besides..." Camilla said as she walked over, startling Bernard as she stepped into the water and sat next to him, completely naked. "Why complain about work when you are supposed to be doing something a bit "intimate" with me." She said as she placed her hand on his knee and then rested her head on his shoulder.

"Ah! Um!?" Bernard stuttered in surprise. _"Damn it! I am so not used to this... Actually..."_ He thought before a thought formed in his head. "If you don't mind, I have a question to ask you..." Bernard said as he tried not to stare at Camilla next to him.

"What?" Camilla replied as she lifted her head off his shoulder.

"Why me?" Bernard questioned as Camilla raised an eyebrow.

"Why "you" what?" Camilla responded.

"Why are you attracted to me so much?" Bernard said as he still struggled not to stare at Camilla.

Upon hearing this, Camilla sighed in a bothered tone, prompting Bernard to look at her in interest. Noticing her facial expression, Bernard saw the relatively annoyed face she was giving him.

"I'm... Just asking..." Bernard said as he saw the annoyance splattered all over her face while also trying to not let his eyes wander to her nude form underneath the water.

"If it makes you understand a bit better, fine." Camilla said with a bit of a disgruntled tone. "Did you know I dated some people after you left the guild?" She asked as Bernard made a confused face.

"You did?" Bernard replied.

"To be honest, I've liked you since we were kids and when we were teens as well. Regardless, I know you have a personal issue related to that rock in your chest but that doesn't bother me as much as it does you. But it's not like I was "hung up" over you so I did try to move on." Camilla explained as she pointed at Bernards Lacrima.

"O-okay?" Bernard said, unsure of what else to add as she continued.

"But anyway, like I said, I tried to date other people after you left. Most of which were from Blue Pegasus and... Wow, that was a mistake on my part." Camilla said as she played with a strand of her hair.

"Wait... The guild with all the attractive people?" Bernard responded as his eye twitched. _"She went on dates with wizards who entertain people the same way hosts and hostesses do at those pervy nightclubs..."_ He thought in a surprisingly jealous way.

"I went out once with the Trimen each. You've heard of them right?" Camilla questioned.

"The-the Trimen?!" Bernard replied loudly. "Those three guys who are constantly in the dating gossip pages of Sorcerer Weekly?!" He said in a bothered tone. _"Okay, now I am getting really curious... And annoyed..."_

"Calm down, nothing happened out of it, most of the dates ended with me leaving the dinner table anyway." Camilla said as she noted Bernards jealous expression. _"Never pegged him for the jealous type... Well then again, he did used to get extremely anger prone so maybe this is just him channeling a bit of his old self."_

"...Did-did you go out with all three?" Bernard asked.

"Yes." Camilla said bluntly.

"At once?" Bernard said to which Camilla made an embarrassed expression and looked at Bernard with a mildly angry look.

"No!" Camilla said with anger.

"Oh thank goodness..." Bernard said, sighing with relief.

"Oh? Why are you happy about that? Afraid I won't hold you in your sleep at night anymore?" Camilla said with an angry smug expression.

"N-no! Shut up! That's not what I meant!" Bernard said with an embarrassed blush on his face. _"I'm not jealous... I'm just... Really annoyed about hearing this... Really annoyed..."_ He thought with annoyance.

"After I heard about what you had been up to from Sorcerer Weekly from Hargeon and Crocus, a part of me was angry that you still didn't try to reach out. It made me feel... Like you just didn't care about me anymore, let alone the guild." Camilla said as she looked up at the sky. "Then we picked you up in Magnolia and saw how bitter and frightened you were now... I just didn't like it..." She said.

"...What's that supposed to mean?" Bernard said with serious eyes.

"You're not acting anymore like the guy I fell for..." Camilla said with a mildly sad tone. "I liked the old Bernard... The Bernard I saw when we had the show problem a few weeks ago."

"The Bernard that's shouting at people and acting bossy?" Bernard said with a confused tone.

"The Bernard that cares..." Camilla said as she glanced at him, catching Bernard by surprise. "It took nearly getting killed by Chester, forcing yourself to fix the show out of frustration, being punished by helping everybody and getting trapped on an island at the end of the lake to even make you consider Psycho Circus as a home again... The Bernard I remember wouldn't have taken that long." She continued.

"You know... I reconciled with Marlene, Anatoli and Pietro earlier today before we got here..." Bernard said, trying to add something.

"Good... But you still haven't totally reconciled with me in the way I want you to..." Camilla stated as Bernards eyes widened.

"Hmmm..." Bernard mumbled as he was forming an idea in his head about what she was referring to.

"I kiss you in your sleep you know? All the cuddling in bed and the fact I try to stick up for you on trying to avoid dangerous missions when the other members try to take you on them... It's kinda obvious as to why, right?" Camilla said as she looked at Bernard with serious eyes.

"...I'm not acting like I don't notice but... I'm just confused as to why..." Bernard said as he scratched the back of his neck.

Upon hearing this, Camilla reached over and grabbed Bernard by his arm, lifting up to his feet in the water as they both stood naked in the hot spring, the water up to their shins. As Bernard noticed Camillas naked body wasn't concealed by the water anymore, he nervously tried to look away but Camilla put her hands on his cheeks and forced him to maintain eye contact with the serious expression she was giving him. Wrapping her arms around his upper body, Camilla moved forward and pressed her bare chest against his, causing him to make a surprised and aroused face.

"Just be quiet and listen to me okay?" Camilla said as Bernard looked her in the eyes. "If you don't want to stay in Psycho Circus and become the guild master like everyone wants, that's fine..." She said, catching Bernard by surprise.

"Wh-what?" Bernard said confused.

"When you left the first time... If you had asked me to come run away with you, I would have come. I know the responsibility of being a guild master felt like it was too much for you and that's what drove you away but I was more than willing to help you pick up the slack back then, even if you didn't want my help." Camilla continued. "Even if you don't want to be around everyone else and deal with the guild, I... I... I, at least, want you to be around me..." She said in a sullen tone.

Bernard couldn't form any words to respond back as Camilla inched herself closer to him and hugged him tighter. With no idea of what to say, Bernard only could do one thing he could think of; he raised his arms slightly and put them around Camillas upper back, hugging her. Upon noticing, Camilla looked at him and his face full of worry and shame that formed.

"Don't make that face... Expressions like that is one of the reasons I am struggling here..." Camilla said with a semi-depressing tone as she put her hands on Bernards shoulders and lightly pushed him off. "Look forget it, it's obvious this whole thing was a waste of time and too much for you to handle- Huh?"

As Camilla lightly pushed Bernard back, she noticed Bernard grabbed her by both wrists and pulled her back towards him. Placing her arms around his shoulders and putting his arms around her upper back once again, Bernard hardened his face and rubbed his eyes with one of his hands to try and calm himself.

"I've... Never been on a date before..." Bernard said with a red face, unsure of himself as Camilla was caught off guard by his hold on her. "Is it always this hard?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"...Not typically..." Camilla said with a wry smile.

"...Look, I..." Bernard stuttered, swallowing spit as what he was going to try and say was becoming difficult for him. "I... Accept your feelings..." Bernard said as he looked away from Camilla.

"...Huh?" Camilla mumbled in surprise.

"I'm... Trying to get better at dealing with everyone in the guild... And I can't act like I don't notice when it's so obvious..." Bernard said, still struggling.

"...Huh?" Camilla repeated.

"...If... You want to keep doing this kind of thing... I... Don't mind it..." Bernard said with crazed eyes and a red face. "Well?... Aren't you gonna say something- What the?!" He continued until he noticed something strange happened.

Slipping out of his grasp, Camilla fell backwards into the water with a hard thud. Her eyes rolling into the back of her head, blood dripping out of her nostrils and a disturbingly weird grin forming on her face as the water started to turn slightly red from her nosebleed.

"Holy crap!?" Bernard said loudly as he reached into the water and lifted up Camillas limp body that was in a dazed state. "Whoa, come on! Wake up! I don't want to make this seem like I did something wrong here!" He said with worry as the doors to the mixed bathing area suddenly busted open, prompting Bernard to turn his head to see who had entered.

"There you are, you punk!" Said the Younger Vanish Brother who was covered in wounds from earlier.

"Thought we'd find you here!" Said the Elder Vanish Brother who had bandages around his forehead and other body parts.

"You two!? Again?!" Bernard said loudly and angrily as he held Camilla in her arms.

"Your ass is grass for your little girlfriend over there beating us up!" The Younger Vanish Brother said as he started to crack his knuckles.

"No getting out of this one." The Elder Vanish Brother said calmly as he struggled to lift up the large frying pan weapon.

Bernard, eyes twitching and his body radiating an aura of anger, however, started to grit his teeth in frustration. Letting loose one of his hands from the unconscious Camilla, Bernards made an evil smile on his face as reached over and pressed on his Lacrima Pacemaker a few times. As he did that; red, black and blue fluid begun to drip out of his pacemaker and fell into the blood stained water as Formosa begun to form, startling the Vanish Brothers.

'"What the hell is that?!"' The Vanish Brothers said in unison as Bernards energy started to get sucked into the large fluid golem.

"You two ruined my friends night... I'm not taking that lightly!" Bernard screamed in anger. "Formosa! Crush them!" He ordered as Formosa raised its large bony claw overhead.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Golden Breath Inn, 9:47 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Outside of Bernard and Camillas shared room, Bernard sat on the floor outside the door with Corvus, Vulp and Baurs nearby with him telling the monsters what had happened.

"-And that's what happened..." Bernard said as he scratched his head.

"Congratulations kid, you have a girlfriend now." Corvus said with a snarky tone.

"Sh-shut up!" Bernard said embarrassed.

"What's wrong? Isn't that something to be happy about?" Baurs said as Vulp looked at Bernards defensive reaction.

"It's hard to say... Back in the baths, I said I accepted her feelings and now I don't even know what the hell I meant by it..." Bernard said as he looked at the ground.

"Basically, you told her; "it's okay to get freaky with me."' Corvus said perversely to Bernards chagrin.

_"I really do hate you sometimes..."_ Bernard thought as he looked at the crow. "Regardless, I called out Formosa and slammed those two idiots and then had them thrown really far away, they probably landed somewhere in the waters around Magnolia." He explained as Bernard reached out and petted Vulp behind the ears, the fox happily accepting Bernards action.

"So now the big question..." Corvus said as he waddled over to Bernards side and placed his wing around Bernards shoulder. "Who's sleeping tonight with the hottie? Me or you?" Corvus asked with a serious tone to Bernard.

"...Did you seriously just ask that?" Bernard said annoyed.

"Hey, she's our girlfriend. Figured you had enough time with her already you know?" Corvus joked.

"She not yours, she's mine- No! No, she's not, that's not what I mean- ugh!" Bernard said, stumbling over his words.

"Pfff! Bahahaha!" Corvus laughed as he put his wings on chest and started rolling on the floor in a hysterical fashion. As they were talking, the door to Bernard and Camillas room opened slightly, prompting everyone to look up and see Camilla standing there with an exhausted look on her face.

"Could you guys keep it down, please?" Camilla said tiredly. "I want to sleep and I can't with all the barking..." She said.

"Uhh… Sorry. Come on guys, back in." Bernard said as he ordered everyone back inside of his body with Vulp turning into particles and Baurs transforming into her bracelet form.

"Aww really? I was going to ask if we could schedule "quality time" with the hottie now? Was thinking you could have weekends and holidays and I'd have Monday through Friday. Hehehe." Corvus once again joked as Bernard made an angry expression before pointing at his Lacrima pacemaker. "Alright, fine. Later "lovebirds."' The crow said before turning into light particles and entering Bernards Lacrima.

"You okay?" Bernard said as he looked back to see Camilla gripping the side of her head.

"Not really... Ugh..." Camilla said as she walked over to one of the two floor mats with a pillow and blanket left on it and laid down on it, face first into the pillow.

"Yeah... You kinda bled out a lot from earlier..." Bernard said as he scratched his face embarrassingly as he stood up and walked into the room.

"Today's been an incredibly long day..." Camilla said tiredly.

"It... Wasn't bad though..." Bernard said as he scratched his head and Camilla turned back to look at him.

"Hey Bernard?" Camilla said as she glanced at him. "Remember what I said earlier?"

"Yeah, I remember all of it." Bernard said with a sigh.

_"He's probably too tired for any of this... So much for this date being the way I wanted it to be..."_ Camilla thought begrudgingly as she tightly gripped at the pillow she had her face on. "If you want, you can sleep on that floor mat tonight, no need to worry about me clinging to you in your sleep..." She said as she pointed to the other floor mat in the room.

"Uh huh..." Bernard said as he looked at the floor mat and then looked back at Camilla. _"Okay Bernard... Think of something to say to possibly cheer her up... Well... "Actions speak louder than words" I guess?" _He thought as he walked over to the other floor mat and grabbed the pillow while still standing and walked over to Camillas mat. "Move over."

"Huh?" Camilla said confused.

"You heard me, move over." Bernard said as he sat down on the mat and placed his pillow next to Camillas, reaching over to grab his blanket from the other mat as well.

"What are you-?" Camilla said confused as she got up slightly from her pillow before getting cut off by Bernard speaking.

"Because of you constantly clinging to me while I sleep, I feel weird sleeping by myself now. Thanks to you, I'm too used to it." Bernard said in a semi-complaining tone as he laid his head back on the pillow and pulled all the blankets over himself and Camilla. In the midst of this, Bernard put his arm around Camillas shoulder and pulled her closely to him as they laid on the bed.

"You-you... are going to hold me like this all night?" Camilla said with a red face as a trickle of blood started to appear out of one of her nostrils. _"Don't get a nosebleed! Don't get a nosebleed!" _She thought with worry as she clenched her nose.

"Yes..." Bernard said begrudgingly. "Just... Keep in mind, if this going to be a thing now... Please don't say anything to Anatoli and the others..." He said with a bothered tone.

"No." Camilla said bluntly as she readjusted herself and loomed over Bernard. "I'm telling everyone, no "if's" "and's" or "buts"'

"Seriously?! Why?" Bernard said defensively.

"Because if I don't, your pet crow will and he will make it seem like we did much worse things than what we did tonight." Camilla said with a serious look in her eyes.

"...Fair point..." Bernard said as he realized the accuracy of her statement as Camilla laid her head back, next to Bernard.

"Hey..." Camilla said.

"What now?" Bernard replied.

"Can you kiss me?" Camilla asked innocently.

"Wha-what?" Bernard said in surprise.

"I always kiss you, now it's your turn..." Camilla asked earnestly.

"Ugh. Fine!" Bernard said quickly as he turned his head and placed his lips on Camillas forehead. Turning back to lay on the pillow, Bernard closed his eyes tightly. "Happy? G'night- Huh?!" He continued until he noticed a wet feeling on his shoulder.

Turning his head towards Camilla slowly, Bernard noticed his shoulder was now caked in blood as he looked and saw Camillas nose was dripping with blood once again.

"Again?!" Bernard said as he sat up and looked at Camillas swirly eyes of unconsciousness and dripping nosebleed. "Is this just going to be a thing now?" He said tiredly as he looked at his new girlfriends catatonically aroused state.

* * *

**One can only hope so Bernard, one can only hope. Bernards bath time was a moment of serious reflection for the young man and his time spent with Camilla. They had a heart to heart and a chest to chest, literally and figuratively in the bathhouse area of the Inn they were staying at. With accepting of her feelings for him, Bernard has somewhat agreed to view Camilla as his girlfriend and vice versa but awkwardness has now set in as Camilla has kept "nosebleeding" on him. What's next is now the big question? Who knows, the writer I guess.**

**Authors Note: (Thank you for the vote of confidence narrator, it really helped. This chapter, surprisingly went a completely different route than what I was originally planning for it. Not to go on a tangent but yeah, there was a different idea for the chapter and it went completely into other places. Now, the next story arc begins next time... And we begin the moment of Bernards "big push" if I was to use pro wrestling terminology. See you soon.)**


	34. Chapter 34

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus guildhall, 9:49 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Come on..." Anatoli said as he bent over a table in the guildhall, kneeling on his ball.

"No." Bernard, dressed in his usual beanie with a black and gray T-shirt and brown pants with black shoes, said bluntly as he looked at his logbook of show ideas, flipping through the pages.

"Damn it! It's a good idea!" Anatoli shouted as he grabbed a drink on the table and took a swig of it.

"I gotta agree with Bernard, I don't see how it's a good idea." Marlene said as she sat opposite of Bernard, plate of food and a drink in front of her.

"Trust me here! Have I ever steered anyone wrong?" Anatoli said with a confident tone as Bernard and Marlene looked at him with looks of annoyance.

'"Always."' Bernard and Marlene said in unison.

"Ergh!" Anatoli muttered in aggravation.

"Seriously, it's a stupid suggestion." Bernard said as he looked at Anatoli.

"I found maps and everything! It'd be a fun little road trip we all could go on now that everything is cool!" Anatoli said in his defense.

"As much fun as it would sound, it also sounds like a large hassle…" Marlene said as she looked at Anatoli who reached behind himself and pulled out a map in his back pocket and slammed it down on the table, prompting Bernard to grab his book and Marlene to grab her food and drink before they could get knocked over.

"Hey!" Bernard said with annoyance as Anatoli unfurled his map.

"Look! Hear me out; check this." Anatoli said as he invited Marlene and Bernard to look at the map he had. "This is a map of Fiore. Mountains, rivers, forests and all." He said as he pointed at a bunch of landmarks.

"Mt. Hakobe, Crowbane Canyon, Galuna Island, Era... Yeesh, I am not going to Era." Marlene said aloud as she looked over the places on the map.

"No way any of us are going to Era. Last place in Earth Land I want to be is the place where the Magic Council is." Anatoli said as he looked at Marlene.

"Then why is it marked?" Bernard wondered.

"I was randomly placing dots on places after a bit and I guess I put one on it. But forget it, we ain't going there." Anatoli said.

"Why? Got something to hide?" Bernard said as he made a curious look towards Anatoli.

"I am not interested in seeing the people who govern the guilds and watch all of them with their lizard and frog-like faces. They look like a bunch of freaks!" Anatoli exclaimed.

"Says the monkey man?" Marlene said with a smirk as Bernard grinned.

"Says the boyfriend-less chameleon." Anatoli said with agitation as Marlene made a depressed expression and slammed her face down onto the table.

"Why am I so ugly?! Aaahhh!" Marlene said with tears rolling down her face as she laid her head on the table.

"Calm down, you're not ugly." Bernard said as he reached over and put his hand on Marlenes shoulder to comfort her with her pulling her face up and wiping her face to calm herself down. "Always have to aim low, don'tcha?" He said with an unimpressed look at Anatoli.

"She'll get over it in a few minutes!" Anatoli said as he motioned for them to get back to looking at the map as they went back over to it. "Mt. Hakobe will be first then we can go to this canyon here, then these mountain ranges and then this ocean here!" He said as he pointed to different spots.

"Wasn't the point of you guys finding me was because you wanted to keep me here at the guild? Isn't taking me on a road trip to a bunch of random locations counterproductive?" Bernard said with a skeptical tone.

"Not technically. Remember, we all wanted to go on a journey together like this back when we were kids but the context to this idea Anatoli has is a bit... Concerning..." Marlene explained as she looked at Anatoli.

"It's a great idea and it's not the least bit concerning! Once we go to these locations and find what we are looking for, it'll all be worth it!" Anatoli said in his defense.

"Somehow I doubt that." Bernard said as he sat back down.

Unbeknownst to him, however, was a certain young woman approaching behind him. Dressed in a black tank-top with a green camo-esque pair of shorts that exposed much of her legs with black leggings and black boots with a green loose long sleeve button up tied around her waist, she wrapped her arms around Bernards neck and shoulders from behind and pressed herself against his backside and laid her head on his shoulder.

"Hey there!" Camilla said with a happy expression on her face as she hugged the now red faced Bernard from behind as he sat at the table.

"Uh! Hi!" Bernard said in surprise as he started to sweat somewhat from Camilla startling him. _"Ergh! The daily public display of affection..." _He thought with embarrassment as she looked at him from his side with a welcoming expression.

"Sleep well last night? Felt nice with your arms around me. Hehehe." Camilla said in a flirting tone.

"Do-don't talk about that out loud!" Bernard said in embarrassment and nervousness. _"We got back from that inn two days ago and she has been acting like my girlfriend ever since... It's not a bad thing but damn it, she's been invading my personal space like there's no tomorrow lately..."_ He thought as he put his hand on one of her wrists in an attempt to loosen her hug on him.

"Hehehe..." Anatoli chuckled as he looked at Bernards embarrassment from Camilla being openly flirtatious towards him before turning his attention over to Marlene, who made a bothered expression from looking at the pair. _"What's her deal?"_ He thought with a raised eyebrow.

"Could... You maybe stop sneaking up on me and doing stuff like that?" Bernard said with a tone of nervousness as he looked at Camilla.

"No way honey. Hehehe." Camilla joked as she rubbed Bernards shoulders, making him feel more embarrassed. "So whatcha guys talking about?" She said as she got back slightly from Bernard and stood behind him as he sat with her hands resting on his shoulders.

"Well... Anatoli has this incredibly bad idea for a "road trip" he wants us all to go on." Bernard explained.

"To where?" Camilla said with curiosity.

"Everywhere on this map." Anatoli said with a confident tone as he pointed at a bunch of places on the map on the table as Pietro approached, holding a mixed cocktail in his hand.

"What's going on?" Pietro said as he joined in on the conversation.

'"The Great Psycho Circus Monster Hunt!"' Anatoli said as he stood on his ball and struck an overly dramatic pose. "Let me explain, I got a lot of details to-" He was going to continue but was cut off by Bernard speaking up.

"Anatoli wants to go to a bunch of places to find a bunch of exotic monsters for us to wrangle up and then figure out some weird way to insert them inside me." Bernard said bluntly as Camilla and Pietros eyes widened.

"It's going to be great! I was thinking we could go to this nook in the ocean and find a bunch of mystical starfish or something and then figure out someway to put them inside Bernards leg and then-" Anatoli said until he noticed Camilla was giving him a sharp glare.

"No." Camilla stated bluntly as Pietro rubbed his bald head.

"I'm not on board with it either." Pietro said, agreeing with Camilla.

"Thank you!" Marlene said in compliance.

"Oh come on, this is a golden opportunity to finally be able to go on a road trip together! We find more things Bernard could get control of, make him stronger and then we could use them in the show! Win-win!" Anatoli explained as everyone looked at him with skepticism.

"I don't need more magical creatures around me, what I have already is enough... What I really need is money." Bernard said with a sullen tone as he hung his head down as everyone looked at him with confusion.

"What's that mean?" Anatoli asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Still haven't gotten a Jewel to your name, huh?" Marlene said as Bernard continued to hang his head. Approaching Camilla, Pietro tapped her on the shoulder and motioned for her to talk to him a few feet from the table, away from the others.

"Has Lil' Bern still not gotten paid for any of the jobs he has been doing?" Pietro whispered to Camilla.

"I tried to ask Master Barnum but he gave me some bad jokes as usual and then told me; "Until someone says otherwise, Bernard isn't allowed a coin." And I'm pretty sure I know who this "someone" is." Camilla said as she pointed her finger towards Bernard.

"Not going to allow him to get any money unless he asks for it, huh?" Pietro said as he sipped his drink.

"And knowing Bernards pride and stubbornness, he isn't going to ask." Camilla said as she scratched her head as she looked at Bernard still bickering with Anatoli and Marlene.

As the Psycho Circus wizards passed the time with conversation, a small and unfamiliar man dressed in a frilly purple and white outfit and his brown hair in side curls like an old duke of some kind, had entered the guild with a young woman with similar brown colored hair and a pretty dress with a similar color scheme, following behind him. The man had one extremely noticeable aspect of his appearance however; his lips were pressed so tightly, it was if he had sucked on several lemons for days until his mouth looked as if it was inhaling itself.

"My my, so this is the place..." The small man with the pressed lips said as he looked around as he glanced at the members of the guild, unusual appearances and all.

"Yes, father. The Psycho Circus guild. Home of wizard performers." The young woman said, addressing her father.

"Are you positive these are the people we need to talk to?" The small man said.

"You are the one who felt going here was the best idea." The young woman said as she looked around when suddenly, almost out of nowhere, Master Barnum appeared in front of the small man, meeting him at eye level.

"Hi." Master Barnum said with a smirk as the small man and his daughter jumped back slightly in surprise.

"My heavens!" The small man said in response to the scare by the Psycho Circus guild master that matched his height.

"How may I help you two newcomers to my humble abode of oddities?" Master Barnum said with a grin as he swirled his cane in his hands.

"Oh! You must be the guild master, correct?" The young woman asked.

"Master Barnum O'Halloran, at your service, milady!" Master Barnum said as he bowed with his top hat off.

"A pleasure to meet you. I am Count Balsamico. And this is my daughter, Aceto." The small man said, revealing himself as a count named Balsamico.

"Appropriate name." Master Barnum said casually as he looked at the counts lips.

"What?" Count Balsamico said in response.

"Nothing." Master Barnum replied quickly.

"It's very nice to meet you, Master Barnum." Aceto said with a welcoming tone.

"As it is you, young lady. What may be the nature of this visit?" Master Barnum asked.

"We are here on business actually." Aceto said.

"Magic or performing? Might you be wanting seats for our next show in advance? The tickets might be pricier though knowing we have a count in the audience. Hehehe." Master Barnum joked.

"No!" Count Balsamico said loudly, mildly offended by his joke.

"Father! Please, do not scream!" Aceto said loudly. "My apologies, we are actually here for a request."

"Oh? What kind of request?" Master Barnum said.

"We are looking for entertainment for an event tomorrow. Specifically, my granddaughters first birthday." Count Balsamico said.

"We don't do private parties, to be completely honest. Our guilds wizards specifically handle shows at our tri-weekly showcase." Master Barnum explained as he scratched the back of his head under his top hat.

"Darn..." Aceto said sadly as she made a sullen expression.

"If I may, what kind of entertainment were you looking for?" Master Barnum questioned.

"My granddaughter had just came into this world twelve months ago when my darling daughter, Aceto, and her... Husband, Velveno, had brought into this world an amazing little girl named Merilo." Count Balsamico said, notably giving a distasteful tone when mentioning his daughters husband. "I wanted her first birthday to be the best event in the history of Earth Land!" He said said loudly.

"Hence, my fathers decision to have us come here to look for something specific." Aceto said.

'"Something specific" like?" Master Barnum asked.

"I want my darling granddaughter and our family and friends to see some of the most amazing and exotic creatures available!" Count Balsamico exclaimed. Upon hearing this, Master Barnums eyes glossed over in the direction of a certain table that had his son sitting at it.

"We were wondering if you had anyone in your guild who might have some rare unknown animals at their disposal to entertain my daughter for her first birthday." Aceto said. "But it looks like we aren't going to get what we came for here so we will have to find an altern-" She continued until Master Barnum spoke up.

"Well... A member of Psycho Circus may not be able to you with that but we have a certain "someone" here who may be able to help you who isn't a part of the guild." Master Barnum said with a smirk as he pointed over towards the table Bernard and the others were sitting at.

"Oh?" Count Balsamico said as he looked over with his daughter. "Which one? The large bald man or the girl with the fake fangs and spots on her skin?" The count continued.

"The fangs and spots are real but not them, the young man with the beanie on his head. He is also my son and "soon-to-be successor" given how he has been handling things lately here at the guild." Master Barnum said with a smile on his face. "Go talk to him. Oh, and be sure to mention a "price point." Hehehe." He joked as he walked away with Count Balsamico and Aceto looking towards the table where the group was.

"Look, all I am saying, it sounded better in my head!" Anatoli said as he sat on his ball.

"I'm not letting you chop off my leg just to fill a prosthetic one with magic starfish just to have them for the show! Besides, where would we find some mystical fish!?" Bernard said in a defiant tone.

"To be fair, I have heard about magical sea monsters on a island somewhere in the southern ocean." Pietro said as he sat at the table.

"That doesn't help..." Marlene said with a bothered tone as she looked at Pietro.

"Excuse me?" Count Balsamico said as the group of Bernard, Anatoli, Marlene, Pietro and Camilla turned their heads to see the regally dressed pair approach them.

"Hi, how may we help you?" Camilla said as she stood up from the table.

"We were told there was someone over here we were looking for who isn't a part of the Psycho Circus guild who also has a collection of exotic fauna?" Aceto asked as Camilla, Marlene, Anatoli and Pietro glanced towards Bernard, who made a confused face.

_"I guess that would constitute me..."_ Bernard thought with a raised eyebrow. "Hello?" He said confused.

"My name is Aceto, and this is my father; Count Balsamico. May we have a word?" Aceto asked of Bernard as he shrugged his shoulders as the group stood up and walked off, leaving Bernard sitting at the table as the father and daughter sat down opposite of him.

"My name is Bernard. I'm guessing my dad sent you over here?" Bernard asked.

"Correct." Aceto said.

"What for?" Bernard questioned.

"We were told you have a collection of rare and exotic animals on hand?" Count Balsamico said.

"...Yes, I guess?" Bernard replied as the others were listening as they were a couple of feet behind him, trying to listen in, sitting at another table.

"What are they talking about?" Marlene said as they all leaned over to slightly listen.

"Something about Bernards pets." Pietro said as he sat with his arms crossed.

"My daughters birthday is tomorrow and we were looking for someone to entertain her and the guests." Aceto explained.

"Okay?" Bernard said confused.

"We would like you and the creatures at your disposal to be a guest at the party tomorrow and entertain my granddaughter for her birthday, if you please." Count Balsamico said as Bernards eyes widened in surprise as Camilla and the others looked on with similar surprise.

"Whoa, did they seriously ask Bernie to perform?" Anatoli questioned to the others in shock.

"Hold on, why do you want "strange and rare animals" to be an attraction at your kids birthday party?" Bernard asked.

"My father thought it would be a good idea to show my one year old daughter rare and exciting creatures to entertain her and thought this circus would have something "out of the ordinary."' Aceto explained.

_"...To be fair, the stuff inside me is definitely out of the ordinary for "exotic fauna." _Bernard thought. "Hey, look. I appreciate the offer but I don't feel comfortable with this." He said.

"If the problem is payment, we already discussed that with your father." Count Balsamico responded as Bernard bit his lip.

_"...I'm going to slam a plate into that annoying old fogeys cranium... Bastard not allowing me to have a coin to my name knowing I wouldn't be allowed to keep this cash..."_ Bernard mentally complained.

"We're offering three million Jewels for your services." Aceto mentioned as Bernards eyes widened in surprise as the others overheard it.

"Thr-three million jewels!?" Anatoli exclaimed loudly.

"That's a lot of change!" Marlene said in similar loud fashion.

"But let's not forget..." Pietro said as he spoke up, catching the others attention. "It's a large sum of money that Bernard isn't allowed to have." He said, causing the others to form a realization.

_"...Damn it..."_ Camilla thought with disappointment as Master Barnum casually walked by and glanced at the quartet of wizards.

"I don't have telepathic powers like some wizards but I can tell what's on your mind." Master Barnum said with a smirk as he looked at Camilla. "A shame really, how my son isn't allowed to get payment for his wizards jobs. Frankly, a special request like this doesn't technically count as "wizard work" since he is to "perform" with his creatures and not assist on jobs, so there is a bit of a loophole... Ah who really cares though? It's just me rambling, don't worry about it. Hehehe." Master Barnum said with a smirk as he walked away as Camillas eyes widened as she turned towards Pietro, Marlene and Anatoli.

"Guys... I have an idea." Camilla said as she looked at them.

"Well... I appreciate the offer but to be honest, I am not a performer, I'm more of a janitor and assistant around here." Bernard explained begrudgingly. _"So much for a "payday" but I'm not allowed to keep any of the three million..." _He thought with disappointment.

"Oh, that's disappointing..." Count Balsamico said as Aceto made a sullen look.

"I'm sorry for coming all this way and not finding what you were looking for but- blurf!" Bernard said until he was suddenly cut off by the feeling of two female hands covering over his mouth, preventing him from talking further.

'"Pardon the interuption!"' Camilla and Marlene said with chipper tones as they appeared behind Bernard, putting both of their hands over his mouth and their arms around his shoulders with their faces incredibly close to the point their cheeks were touching his. On the other ends of the table, Pietro and Anatoli also appeared.

"Don't mind him, he is just being modest!" Pietro said with a similarly chipper tone.

"Yeah, this boy loves coming up with ideas for things! He has tons of ideas for those monsters you asked about, of course he could perform for you!" Anatoli said with a confident tone as Bernard looked at the others with anger and surprise.

_"What the hell are you all doing?!" _Bernard mentally screamed as he blushed slightly from the feeling of Camilla and Marlene pressing themselves so closely against him to keep him quiet.

"Calm down. We're helping you." Camilla whispered into Bernards ear.

"Just trust us and don't say anything." Marlene whispered as Bernard struggled to shake them off.

"For three million Jewel, Bernard would happily show you the amazing creatures he has at his disposal! He has this bird that can channel lightning and this big slime demon that can scare you so bad, you'll spoil your pantaloons! Among other things too!" Anatoli said as he acted like he was giving a sales pitch.

"Oh my, how exciting!" Count Balsamico said with interest.

"I can't wait to see these monsters, thank you so much for reconsidering." Aceto said with similar interest.

"Do not worry, we will make sure he is prepared for tomorrows festivities." Pietro said with an assuring tone. "I will see you out." Pietro said as he motioned for the pair to follow him out the guildhall. As they left, Bernard finally managed to get out of Marlene and Camillas grasp on his upper body.

"What the hell was that?!" Bernard said angrily as he stood up from the table and looked at his friends. "Do you guys realize the mess you just made?!" He said in frustration.

"No, because we were too busy stopping you from making a bad call." Camilla said in response.

"A chance like this is not something you can't afford to pass up on." Anatoli said.

"You guys know I can't perform! And I don't get a single coin of that money either!" Bernard said defiantly.

"But you aren't technically performing, the monsters are." Marlene said in response.

"Same damn thing!" Bernard said angrily.

"Look, just calm down alright." Camilla said as she approached Bernard in an attempt to calm him down. "I already worked it out with the guild master, you can keep the money from this job." She said in a reassuring tone.

"Wait, really- Oh, that's not the point!" Bernard said with a tone of surprise before switching back to one of annoyance. "I didn't agree to this!" He continued in frustration.

"You weren't going to agree without us deciding!" Anatoli shouted in response before Bernard angrily glared at Anatoli.

"Hey, knock it off!" Marlene said as she and Camilla tried to keep the boys from fighting. "Bernard, tell us something. Have you been writing ideas down for the guild members?" She asked.

"Yeah, like always, and?" Bernard said disgruntled.

"What about Corvus, Vulp and Baurs? Have you thought of ideas for them? Maybe some stuff that they can perform in the show that you haven't really made them do?" Marlene asked as Bernard made a concerned expression and looked away from the others.

"Have you?" Camilla asked out of curiosity, noticing his disgruntled expression.

"...Yes..." Bernard said begrudgingly. "I... Wrote some ideas down for Corvus, Baurs and Vulp with some routines in mind for the show. But none of it has been tested and I haven't asked any of them before to try the routines either..." Bernard complained.

"Then tell them on the way to Count Balsamicos manor and then practice the ideas before tomorrow." Camilla said casually. "You worked everyone into overdrive before and all went well, what makes you so sure it won't happen again?" She asked.

"Corvus, Vulp and Baurs are completely different cases then everyone here." Bernard said in response.

_"Because if you started to train them in circus performing, you'd grow as attached to them as they are to you..._" Camilla thought as she looked at Bernards expression as Pietro walked back into the guild with a piece of paper. "What's that?" She asked.

"Directions to where Count Balsamico and his daughter live. Slightly on the cliffside of a forest some ways north from here." Pietro said as he handed the directions to Camilla before she turned to Bernard.

"Please, we're all really serious here for you to try and do this..." Camilla said with a serious look in her face as Marlene, Pietro and Anatoli looked at him.

"...Ugh... Fine." Bernard said as he scratched his head as the others became ecstatic as his reaction.

'"Yes!"' The group exclaimed happily as Camilla hugged Bernard in joy.

_"...This is gonna suck..."_ Bernard thought as Camilla tightly clung to him.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tamarisk Forest, 1:01 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Meanwhile, as the Psycho Circus wizards prepared for this excursion to the home of Count Balsamico, deep within the woods of Tamarisk Forest, a lone and slightly derelict building stood, hidden amongst the foliage and trees. Within this building were several men and women in red cloaks all adorned with a banner on the back of their clothes with a symbol in the shape of a demon face on an painters easel. Deeper within this building, was a room with a sign on the door that read: "Claudia Vanderheem's Gallery."

"Hmmm..." Said a young woman as she looked over an object she was watching. She stood dressed in a pair of brown boots, tight black pants tucked into the boots at the bottom, a pair of brown gloves and white button up shirt with a red and purple ascot tied around her neck with her long black hair tied upright in a ponytail with several strands of her hair covering over her left eye. Around her waist was a utility belt with a holster with an ornate yellow handled knife with a curved blade on it. "This is no good..." She said as she looked at the object.

In front of her was a sculpture in the shape of a small young boy with a face of fear and his arms behind his back like it was forced behind him to keep him still. Looking with disappointment, the woman looked around the sculpture and failed to see what she wanted.

"Damn it, this is the third time I've attempted this sculpture and it still doesn't look the way I want it!" The young woman bellowed as she walked over to a table full of art supplies and pushed all of the objects of it in a fit of rage. As the stuff slammed down, a man in one of the red cloaks with the symbol entered the room.

"Master Claudia, what's- Gaahh!" The cloaked man said before he was cut off by the sudden sting of pain in his face as he felt something enter into his eye socket as he clutched at his face.

"Stop screaming!" The woman said after being addressed as "Master Claudia."

"Y-y-yes, milady!" The now scared cloaked man said on his knees as he bled from his eyehole where a paintbrush now was, sticking out of his socket.

"What did I say to all of the people here? Do not interrupt me while I work! It disrupts my process and everything comes undone! Look!" Claudia said as she pointed another paintbrush towards the unhappy child sculpture. "It looks like garbage! And all because the model wouldn't cooperate!" She said angrily as she walked over to the sculpture and slammed the sharp end of the paintbrush in her hand into the head portion of the sculpture.

"I-I apologize for my interruption... I got worried when I heard the slamming and thought you might have gotten hurt." The cloaked man said as he continued to bleed from his socket.

"I'm alright... In one sense of the word..." Claudia said disgruntled as she paced around the darkly lit room.

"It's a beautiful sculpture of despair though, milady. You are quite the genius." The kneeling eyeless man said before Claudia stopped pacing and slowly turned her head towards the kneeling man with a look of aggression forming.

"...I don't want despair! I want innocence!" Claudia screamed as she pulled out the paintbrush from the child sculptures head, now caked in blood and chunks of what appears to be brain matter, and threw the other paintbrush at the other eye socket of the kneeling man, rendering him completely blind as he screamed in agony. "You do not understand my work so you don't get to see it anymore!" Claudia shouted in frustration.

"May I be of assistance?" Said a new voice as a man entered the room. He was dressed in an outlandishly garish attire of black long bellbottom-like pants with yellow fringe and black shoes, a white frilly shirt with a long black coat with yellow fringe that matched his pants with yellow and black hair slicked completely to the side. As well, he had a masquerade ball-esque mask over his eyes with the same black and yellow color scheme.

"What do you want, Tazo? I told everyone not to interrupt me while I work..." Claudia said in frustration as she looked at the sculpture, now bleeding from the top of where she stabbed it with a paintbrush.

"Pardon the intrusion but I believe my efforts will be of great use to you, my master." The over-the-top dressed man named Tazo said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper.

"If it doesn't help with my current desire to capture "innocence" in a physical form, then I do not care..." Claudia said as she poked her finger against the sculpture.

"Well, I believe this will help..." Tazo said with a confident tone and a smirk under his masquerade mask. "Take a look at this." He continued as he handed Claudia the paper.

'"You are cordially invited to the first birthday of my darling granddaughter, Merilo Balsamico. Held at Balsamico manor, live entertainment included." The hell does a birthday help me in any way?" Claudia said as she crumpled up the invitation.

"You are looking for "innocence in physical form" correct? What would you say is the most "innocent" time in any persons life?" Tazo questioned as Claudia started to ponder his words before an idea had formed.

"...Infancy... Nothing is more innocent than a child before it starts to even walk and talk..." Claudia said slowly as she came to a realization of what he was inferring.

"I'd say a baby would make a better model for your work than..." Tazo said as he glanced at the bloody sculpture of a small boy. "A seven year old?" He questioned.

"Six year old." Claudia said bluntly as she got to thinking. "Tell some of the others to clean up this guy bleeding out all over my gallery and then get yourself and the others ready for a trip tomorrow." Claudia said as she walked over to a large suitcase and picked it up with one of her hands. "We got lots of work to do... And lots of beauty needing to be made... Hehehe." Claudia said as she laughed evilly as she walked out of the room with Tazo following behind.

* * *

**That... Was pretty dark... Uhhh… Okay, I'm a little off guard here but give me a sec... *ahem* Bernard has a girlfriend, close allies and now an opportunity to make some decent cash for once. With Count Balsamico and his daughter, Aceto, arriving at the guild and looking for someone to entertain Acetos one year old daughter with his monsters, despite his lack of desire to perform until his friends intervened to "help" in their own special way. But it doesn't seem like this party will be attended by just family, friends, and Bernard with his pets as it seems a mysterious group, led by an artistically driven woman by the name of Claudia Vanderheem, seem to have their own agenda in mind for the young baby, quite a nefarious agenda at that. What could happen next on Menagerie? We'll have to wait and see... Ugh, brain matter...**


	35. Chapter 35

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Roads near Balsamico Manor, 3:45 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Along the pathway, through the woods and on the way towards Balsamico manor was a horse-drawn caravan with a man in a suit driving the buggy. Within the back was a certain beanie wearing young man with a disgruntled expression on his face as he sat on a bench as he looked around at his unwanted guests with him. To his left side was Camilla, who had her arms wrapped around his left arm and laying on him was Vulp, sprawled out on top of both Bernard and Camillas lap.

"So what's this idea here? Where you want me to fire a lightning bolt onto the big slimey guy and then he shoots a beam that prematurely blasts into fireworks?" Corvus questioned as he sat on Bernards right side, reading over Bernards book of ideas.

"I'll explain it later... But first, I need to ask everyone something..." Bernard said with an annoyed tone as he looked around at the other people with him in the carriage area. Sitting opposite of him was Marlene and Pietro, who were sitting on another set of seats while Anatoli was standing in the middle area, attempting to balance himself on his ball as the caravan was in motion.

"Something wrong?" Camilla said as she rested her head on Bernards shoulder with a happy expression as Vulp, making a similar joyous expression, nuzzled himself against Bernards lap.

"Somewhat..." Bernard said with a twitching eye as he looked at everyone in the back with him. "Explain to me again why you are all here?" He questioned as everyone turned to look at him. _"So much for this being a job only I'm supposed to_ _do..."_ Bernard thought.

"Well, I figured it was appropriate I came along to make sure things go well, might be a worthwhile learning experience since I have been mentoring you somewhat. Call this "wizard practice" into the different kinds of work that wizards do." Pietro said, giving his explanation as Bernard looked at Marlene.

"I really want to see how things go, show some support and see if you needed any assistance." Marlene said with an honest tone and a reassuring expression as Bernard looked at Anatoli, attempting to balance himself on his ball.

"I just came- Whoa! I just came along to see if you screw up. Hehehe- Whoa!" Anatoli said with a smirk as he struggled to balance himself as the buggy moved before Bernard turned his attention over to Camilla.

"And you?" Bernard questioned to Camilla. _"As if I didn't already assume your answer..."_ He thought with skepticism.

"Because I'm your girlfriend and I'm being supportive." Camilla said as Bernard gave her a judging look. "...Well, I am also in charge of looking after you so there's that." She said as Bernard continued to give her a look of suspicion.

"...Okay, be honest, everybody…" Bernard said as he looked at everyone.

"Alright fine." Camilla said as she turned her expression from a cheery one to a similarly suspicious look on her face as she glared at her boyfriend. In response, Bernard made a confused and concerned expression as he looked around at Marlene, Pietro and Anatoli, who were now sporting similar looks of suspiciousness.

"Uhhh…" Bernard muttered as he turned his head towards Corvus and noticed the crow was making as confused an expression as he was. "Guys?" He continued worriedly.

"Something wrong?" Corvus said in similar confusion.

"What's up?" Bernard said with a bit of concern as he noticed the glares everyone was giving him.

"A party is a good place for an escape attempt..." Pietro said.

"Where you have to perform with your monsters being very distracting... Everybody wouldn't be the wiser..." Marlene said.

"Sounds perfect all things considered..." Anatoli said.

"For you to run off again..." Camilla said with a harsh sounding tone as Bernard started to sweat as she dug her nails into his arm.

_"Ow! Ow! What the- Do they seriously not trust me enough to not expect me to run away again!?" _Bernard thought with a surprised expression as everyone continued to glare.

"Kid, doesn't look like you can escape your friends again..." Corvus said as he looked towards Bernards book of ideas as the sweating young man glared at the bad joke from the crow.

"I wasn't going to run away!" Bernard angrily shouted towards Corvus as the caravan stopped.

"We're here." The man in a suit driving the caravan said as everyone got out the back, grabbing their belongings.

Standing in front of the group was a large and unusually shaped castle on a cliffside overlooking a forested area. The sight of the building caused the group to raise their eyebrows in confusion at the structure of the castle in the shape of a large bowl filled with vegetables and a gravy boat sticking out of the top.

_'"The heck kind of castle is_ _this?"'_ The collective of Psycho Circus wizards thought with confusion as they stared at the bizarrely food shaped castle. As they stood at the front door, their driver proceeded to bow in front of the group and proceeded to open the doors to the castle as Count Balsamico and his daughter, Aceto, emerged.

"Welcome! Welcome!" Count Balsamico said loudly as the group looked at him with Anatoli holding back a laugh as he saw the counts pressed lips.

"...What a sourpuss... Hehehe." Anatoli whispered as the others looked at him with annoyed expressions.

"Hello, once again." Aceto said with a relaxed expression. "I see you have brought guests as well?" She asked as Bernard scratched his head.

"Yeah, a bit of a surprise to me…" Bernard said as he looked at his friends, who all merely responded with a thumbs up in his direction that annoyed him. "So what's the plan here?" He asked of the Count and his daughter.

"My daughter will show your friends to their rooms. Mr. Bernard, you may use the outside area here to practice your routines." Count Balsamico said as he motioned for his daughters assistance.

"Here, follow me." Aceto said as Camilla, Anatoli, Pietro and Marlene grabbed their stuff as Bernard, Corvus and Vulp stood outside.

"Excuse me?" Camilla asked as she walked alongside Aceto.

"Yes?" Aceto responded.

"If we are staying the night, can you put me and Bernard in a room with a single bed?" Camilla whisper with a smile.

"Oh my! Are you his partner in that sense?" Aceto replied in surprise as Camilla giggled in response.

"In a way. Hehehe." Camilla laughed as the others walked behind them on the way to their rooms.

"Someone can't stop bragging about dating the bosses son." Anatoli said as he rolled on his ball as Pietro nodded in response.

"Hmmmm…" Marlene mumbled as Anatoli and Pietro looked at her.

"You alright?" Pietro asked as Marlene looked at the duo.

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine..." Marlene replied as they all followed Aceto.

Meanwhile, outside of the castle was Bernard, who now had Baurs and Formosa out and standing around with Corvus and Vulp with Bernard pacing in front of them, reading over his notebook at the same time.

"How long are we just going to stand here?" Corvus said aloud as Bernard stopped pacing.

"Give me a few minutes to think. These things take time." Bernard said as he skimmed through the pages.

"So we are to perform?" Baurs asked out of curiosity.

"Yup, but don't know how, since the kid still hasn't told us what we are going to do to entertain a baby." Corvus said as he sat on Baurs large head.

"I said I am thinking!" Bernard said loudly as he continued to pace around as Corvus stretched his neck over to Vulp and Baurs.

"Hey." Corvus said quietly towards Vulp and Baurs as they looked up at him. "Wanna hear something funny? I was rummaging through Camillas mailbox and found a letter to Bernard in there." He said with a smirk.

"Okay? And?" Baurs asked as Vulp looked up confused as Bernard spoke up, overhearing the conversation.

"Sh-shut up, Corvus! You don't need to tell them that!" Bernard said embarrassed.

"What did it say?" Baurs continued.

"It was from the Fiore royal family, hahaha! The princess and that broccoli headed general guy were congratulating Bernard on "joining a wizard guild and becoming a wizard" after he left the capital some time ago. Hehehe." Corvus said with laughter as Bernards face turned red with anger and embarrassment.

"Well, I guess congratulations is in order. Good job, master." Baurs said casually as Vulp looked at Bernard with a cheery expression as Bernard looked aggravated.

"Will all of you stop looking at me like that!?" Bernard exclaimed. "We don't have time to waste right now! We gotta figure out a routine of some kind before tonight!" He shouted as he pointed his fingers at everyone and gave them some of his magic energy. "Okay, so on my mark, I want everyone to do as I say. Got it?" Bernard continued as he looked at a page in the book.

"As you wish." Baurs said as Vulp nodded in compliance.

"Whatever floats your boat." Corvus said nonchalantly as Formosa started to move in response to Bernards command.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Balsamico Manor, 7:59 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Ugh... Do I have to wear this stupid bowtie?" Anatoli complained as he sat on his ball in front of a doorway into the area where the birthday party was already happening, now sporting fancy dress slacks, black shoes and a bowtie around his neck with no shirt.

"Because this may be a child's birthday party, it's still a formal event." Pietro said as he walked over, now sporting a tuxedo.

"Oh come on! You're hardly dressed any differently from how you normally dress!" Anatoli shouted as he pointed at Pietro.

"Because I dress in such a fashion that it's easy for me to change in and out of for just such an occasion. You dress like you are going to the beach everyday." Pietro said constructively as Anatolis eye twitched in annoyance.

"He-hey..." Marlene said as she walked up to the pair. "How do I look?" She asked as the duo looked at her outfit; a simple black dress with short sleeves, a silver silk scarf draped over her shoulders, a pair of silver and black bracelets around her wrists with a pair of silver heels to match.

"You look like a silver snak- Bagh!" Anatoli said until he was suddenly stopped from making fun of Marlene by the feeling of a strike to the back of the head. "What the hell?!" He said as he turned around to look at who smacked him.

"Behave, you dumb chimp." Camilla said with a stern look in her eyes, dressed in a lowcut light blue strapless dress with a black zebra lined design on it with black heels and a black bracelet on her right wrist.

"Ye-yes ma'am..." Anatoli said with a moderately fearful tone as he noted how beautiful Camilla looked.

"I must say, you both cleaned up well for the event." Pietro said as he looked at Camilla and Marlenes dresses.

"Thanks Pietro." Marlene said with a reassured expression.

"That little shopping trip we went on a couple of days ago worked out, huh?" Camilla said with a smile to Marlene who nodded in response.

"Now, the big question is, where is the man of the hour?" Anatoli said as he looked around.

"Yeah, Bernard spent the last four hours practicing with his pets and was trying really hard to avoid having us see him." Marlene said as she glanced around.

"Oh he'll be coming in a second… Hehehe." Camilla said with a smile and a chuckle. As she finished speaking, footsteps could be heard as someone approached the group. Turning around, Pietro, Anatoli and Marlene saw Bernard approaching them, dressed different than normally.

Bernard, a disinterested look on his face, appeared before the group dressed in a purple tucked in button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows with a pair of bracelets around both of his wrists, a black tie underneath a black waistcoat with black slacks and black dress shoes with a purple and black fedora on his head, replacing his usual beanie. Perched on his shoulder was Corvus, sporting a collar with a Psycho Circus guild logo around his neck with Vulp standing next to Bernard, also wearing a collar.

"Your fancily dressed stars are here!" Corvus said as he raised his wing whilst still perched.

_"Handsome..." _Camilla thought with an aroused look on her face as she stared at Bernard with a smirk.

"Now you look proper compared to normal." Pietro said as he examined Bernards attire.

"That looks really good on you." Marlene said in an honest tone as she looked at Bernard.

"You look like a dealer at a poker table..." Anatoli said with a raised eyebrow as he looked at Bernard.

"...Can all of you just go to hell?" Bernard said annoyed as he shook with frustration as Camilla approached, raising her hand and pushing Corvus off his shoulder.

"Ow!" Corvus exclaimed as he hit the ground.

"So not happening." Camilla said as she grabbed Bernards right arm and forced it around her shoulders, keeping him still within her grasp. _"This is awesome!" _She thought gleefully.

"Are you seriously going to cling to me all night?" Bernard said disgruntled as Corvus and Vulp returned into light particles inside Bernards Lacrima pacemaker.

"...Hmmmm…" Marlene mumbled with a disturbed expression as she looked at Bernard and Camilla.

"Yo, fancy snake. Something wrong?" Anatoli said as Marlene turned her attention towards him and Pietro.

"Oh uh, nothing." Marlene said with a nonchalant tone as she played with her scarf as she turned towards the door with Anatoli and Pietro looking at eachother as Anatoli shrugged his shoulders in response.

Moving towards the doorway, the Psycho Circus wizards mentally prepared themselves as Pietro pushed open the door into the location of the party.

Within the large venue space of Balsamico castle, a myriad of different men and women were standing around within the hall and enjoying the party as there were numerous tables of food spread out, a banner that displayed the baby Merilos name and servants dressed in butler uniforms with drinks on platters. Balloons hung from the ceiling with streamers adorned around them and at the end of the room, in a crib, was a certain infant dressed in a pink blanket.

"What a shindig..." Bernard said as he glanced around at everyone with the others from Psycho Circus.

"Hey! Give me a whole champagne bottle!" Anatoli screamed loudly as he rolled on his ball over to a female server with black hair in a ponytail with strands covering over one of her eyes, who was taken back by the chimp-like mans odd behavior.

_"'Moron..."'_ Bernard, Camilla, Marlene and Pietro thought as they looked at their comrade.

"Well, he is going to be drinking all night... What will you two be doing?" Bernard said as he looked at Marlene and Pietro.

"Think I will try and entertain some of the guests as a way of helping with your act. Kinda like an opener." Pietro said as he pulled out his championship belt and put it on his shoulder as he walked away towards a group of partygoers, passing by a pair of female and male servers with yellow and black hair with exotic masks on their faces.

"You?" Camilla asked of Marlene.

"Not entirely sure... Maybe, I'll look around and see if I can find someone who is into fangs and skin blotches." Marlene said in a self-deprecating fashion as she walked away, Bernard and Camilla staring at her.

"...She okay?" Bernard said towards Camilla.

"When we were getting our rooms squared away, she seemed a bit down." Camilla said as she looked at Bernard.

"Maybe she'll find someone to take her mind off things..." Bernard said calmly as he and Camilla walked over to the table where the baby was.

Looking over the crib, the pair looked down and saw the infants form; a cute and adorable child wearing only a single diaper with small black curly hair coming out of the top of her head as she sat contently in the crib.

"Huh, black hair, thought it would be brown like her mothers." Bernard said as he and Camilla looked at the baby.

"She takes after her father somewhat." Said the familiar voice of Aceto as she approached the couple. "My father doesn't enjoy my relationship with the love of my life, Velveno, so the baby looking like him somewhat is a bit of a nuisance to him but he loves his granddaughter with all his heart." She explained.

"Who's Velveno?" Bernard said with curiosity.

"Former wizard and thief, he just got out of prison I heard in Era after he was arrested at a party that the Fairy Tail guild was attending awhile ago." Camilla explained.

"Then we spent a night together and we made a beautiful child." Aceto said with a happy tone as she looked at her infant daughter, a sense of relief could be felt by Bernard and Camilla as they looked at eachother after seeing the joyous expression on her face. "You both may enjoy yourselves, it will be some time before you have to perform tonight, Mr. Bernard." She said as she walked away.

"...Thankfully..." Bernard said with a worried tone.

"Getting cold feet?" Camilla asked.

"Definitely don't feel ready for this..." Bernard said as he scratched his head under his fedora.

"Oh calm down, it'll be fine." Camilla said in a reassuring tone.

"Easy for you to say..." Bernard said tiredly.

"Come on, let's dance." Camilla said as she pulled Bernard towards the dancefloor in the large room, to his surprise.

"Seriously?" Bernard said in a complaining manner.

Meanwhile, as they danced, Marlene stood around a snack table as some people passed by her, noticing her odd physical appearance.

"What's wrong with that girl?" A random male partygoer said quietly to a female friend as they walked by.

"Maybe she is a part of that animal show on the guest bill." The female partygoer said in response as Marlene overheard.

_"...I'm not an ugly_ _animal..."_ Marlene thought depressingly as she looked down into a punchbowl in front of her at the snack table and looked at her face and her features with a face of discontent.

"Hi." A new voice suddenly said towards Marlene as she turned her head to see someone approach her.

Dressed in a servant uniform and holding a platter was a young man about Marlenes age with a slicked back hairstyle of green hair, but more surprisingly to Marlene, was the large tattoo-like markings around his face and eyes that looked as if he had small snakes going up his face towards his forehead in green and black coloring and he appeared to have tattoo markings on his exposed hands as well.

"Uhhh hello?" Marlene said with surprise and confusion to the peculiar man talking to her.

"Sorry for startling you, I just happened to notice you were all alone." The man said towards Marlene in a reassuring tone.

"Yeah well it's..." Marlene said, struggling to find words to say. _"He looks weird... Well, actually, he's kinda cute minus the tattoos. But why is he talking to me? Isn't he supposed to be giving people food or something?" _She thought.

"Quite the shindig, don'tcha think? You come alone?" The man said as he looked at the partygoers.

"Uhh no, I am here with some friends of mine." Marlene said as she looked at everyone with the tattooed man.

"Oh, I am sorry, I forgot to introduce myself." The tattooed man said as he put his platter down on the snack table and outreached his hand to introduce himself. "The name is Dolph. You?" The tattooed man said, revealing his name as Dolph.

"Marlene..." Marlene said with a smile forming on her face as she shook Dolphs hand as they begun to talk. Looking on from the dancefloor while close as they slowly danced, Bernard and Camilla looked over to notice Marlene talking to Dolph.

"Looks like someone found a playmate. Hehehe." Camilla joked as Bernard smiled somewhat at seeing Marlene make a friend.

"At least we don't have to worry about her now... Now I can go back to worrying about all this crap." Bernard said as he slumped his shoulder as they continued to dance.

"Quit pissing and moaning, think about all that money in your pocket when it's over." Camilla said in a reassuring tone.

"Could be useful for buying a bunch of train tickets. Hehehe- Ouch!" Bernard joked until Camilla pinched Bernard on his cheek as he winced in pain.

"Don't even joke about that, jerkwad…" Camilla said with an angry expression forming.

"Ahem! Ladies and Gentlemen!" Count Balsamico said as his voice reverberated around the room as he held a microphone, catching everyones attention. "I would like everyone to please come to the dancefloor and huddle together as we have found a photographer to take a photo!" He said as he introduced a man at his side.

Next to the count was an incredibly large man with a large forehead with a flat head, he was dressed in a black suit with sunglasses over his eyes with a calm smile on his face with a camera with a Lacrima in it hanging by a strap around his neck.

"Please, everyone huddle together. We wouldn't want everyone to miss out on appearing in this photo after all." The large man said as he made a gesture with his hands. Upon seeing this, the female servant with a ponytail and hair covering her eye, the pair of servants with the exotic masks and slicked to the side yellow and black hair and Dolph, the tattooed servants eyes lit up.

"Excuse me, but maybe you should join in on the picture. Then we can talk some more later on?" Dolph said to Marlene.

"Oh sure, I would like that actually." Marlene said in earnest as she walked over to where everyone else was as they huddled for the photo.

"...Hehehe." Dolph chuckled as Marlene walked away as Anatoli and Pietro joined her in walking over to the group.

"Wanna join in?" Camilla asked of Bernard.

"Ehhh I might, just give me a sec, I want to get a snack." Bernard said casually as he walked away towards the snack tables. _"Huh, wonder if I should ask Corvus or Vulp if they want to join in on the group photo."_ He thought as he walked away as Camilla joined her friends and other partygoers.

As everyone stood together, the camera man with the sunglasses started to sweat profusely and begun to breath heavily as he looked through his camera at the many individuals at the birthday party as Aceto, holding her daughter and the Count stood in front.

"Tell us when." Aceto said.

"V-V-very well..." The large man said as he pressed the button to the camera. "Everybody! Freeze!" The photographer screamed. With the flash overtaking everyone, suddenly, a magic circle appeared underneath the feet of the partygoers as a clear glowing box appeared around everyone in the range of the camera flash. Within the box, everyone in range was still and motionless, as if suspended in time within the box.

"Alright charades over!" The female servers with the ponytail said as she removed her bowtie and vest, revealing herself as Claudia Vanderheem.

'"Finally."' The pair of servers said in unison as they snapped their fingers and their servant uniforms changed into a set of garishly over the top clothing with yellow and black matching color schemes, revealing the male one to be Tazo.

"Couldn't we have worn something more "Avant Garde" than these trashy servant outfits? I was worried me and my sister, Tiza, were going to faint from a fashion faux pa." Tazo complained as he examined his clothes.

"One more minute of pretending to serve people shrimp on a stick and I would have jabbed one of these twits with a skewer." Tiza, the similarly dressed sister to Tazo, said

"Nicely done, Loumo!" Dolph said as he removed the top of his clothing, revealing a ton of beastly and animalistic tattoos under his clothes.

"Re-really? It was go-good?" The large man named Loumo said as he looked over the camera he held.

"I'll be the judge of that." Claudia said as she walked over and examined the camera and looked at the photo he took.

"I-I hope you like it..." Loumo said nervously as Tazo, Tiza and Dolph looked on with curiosity at Claudias critique.

"Your white balance is off, the camera is out of focus somewhat and it feels like your palms were sweaty all over my precious "Stop Camera."' Claudia said as Loumo begun to sweat nervously. "But decent work getting everyone in the frame, C+ for effort." She said casually as she handed the camera back to the Loumo as he breathed a sigh of relief. "Now then- Huh?" Claudia continued as she eyed the location of the baby Merilo until she noticed a slamming noise.

"What was that?" Tiza said as she and her brother looked around.

"Hmmm?" Dolph muttered as he looked over by the snack tables and noticed a table had been turned over onto its side in a cover position. _"How'd that get like that?"_ He wondered as he raised an eyebrow.

Meanwhile, behind the table, sweating nervously, Bernard kneeled down in a hiding manner as he tried to catch his breath and assess the situation.

_"...Great... Party crashers..."_ Bernard thought as he swallowed spit.

* * *

**Awww... I wanted to see Bernards performance... Oh well, at least we got something serious taking place. As the party was underway, all was well as food was eaten, people danced and were prepared for a nice party with Bernard making his performing debut but all of that has come undone as Claudia Vanderheem and her team, using a magic camera, has captured everyone at the party in a box that has them suspended in animation, with only one person, and a couple of creatures, free to fight back; Bernard. Can Bernard stop the mysterious group on his own or will this be the end for our young hero? Find out next time on Menagerie!**

**Authors Note: (Okay, I am so sorry this chapter is later than normal, usually I have had more free time but lately I have been busy with a lot of life shit and the holiday season so I am apologizing and this chapter was meant to be so much longer but I was getting strapped for time and will be having to do a cutdown again. Once more, my apologies.)**


	36. Chapter 36

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Balsamico Manor, 9:02 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"...Was that table knocked over already?" Claudia said as she looked over at the table on the ground with her crew.

"Not entirely sure, milady." Tazo said as he rubbed his chin in confusion as his sister, Tiza, scratched her head in equal confusion.

"Well, it is a party. Someone probably went a little nuts and flipped it before we finally got in here." Claudia said as she turned away from the table and went back to her group, examining the partygoers stuck in the time box left behind by Loumos camera. "Hmmmm…" She mumbled as she examined the time locked captives.

"Something the matter?" Dolph said as stood next to Claudia as her eyes wandered.

"Potential candidates for another project?" Tiza said with a smirk as she looked at the people with her boss.

"The half pint in charge of this party has a mouth too weird looking for my pieces. The daughter has a nice figure but I don't like her hair very much and I don't want to go through the process of messing with her hair to make it something I like, too much of waste of time before the idea disappears from my mind." Claudia analyzed as she looked up and down Count Balsamico and Aceto within the time box.

"Lo-lovely judgements, mi-milady..." Loumo said with his nervous tone.

"I know, I'm good, aren't I?" Claudia said with an overconfident tone as her allies clapped their hands at her supposed greatness. Meanwhile, as her and team was distracted, Bernard was still hiding behind the overturned table.

_"...Okay, calm down and think... Even with Corvus and the others, I'm still at a disadvantage in terms of numbers with how useless I am on my own... Thank god they moved away from here, it gave me more time to_ think..." Bernard thought as he continued to hide behind the table. Inching over to the side, he creeped his head out from behind to see the intruders looking over the captives. _"The heck are they doing?"_ He thought with caution.

"Ahhhh, now this a subject!" Claudia said as she moved over to the side of the box and examined Camilla who was also next to Pietro, Marlene and Anatoli.

"My, she is stunning... Hehehe." Tazo said perversely as he looked at Camillas figure.

"Quit staring at her, dummy." Tiza said as she noticed her brother being lecherous. "You probably won't be seeing her again anyway after we are done." She explained.

_"Damn it, stay away from her you pervert, she's mine- Ah, I mean, she's not really! I mean we're close and all but- god damn it, now's not the time for this!" _Bernard thought with a red face as he realized what he was thinking before going back to watch the mysterious intruders.

"These ones around her though, not so much." Claudia said as she critiqued the appearance of Anatoli, Marlene and Pietro. "This ones too fat and the moustache is quite interesting but the lack of hair on his head is a bit of a turn off to his physical appeal." She said as she pointed at Pietro as her allies nodded to the words she said. "This monkey man is just too disgusting in personality, it'll seep through the cracks and become too gross of a piece."

"What about her?" Dolph said as he pointed at Marlene, catching Claudias attention as she turned her head towards the chameleon-like girl in the box.

"Hmmmm…" Claudia said as she examined Marlene. "Why the interest in this one?" She said as Dolph made a slightly red face.

"Saw her about and I kinda got a little crush the moment my eyes glanced at her." Dolph said honestly as Tazo and Tiza smirked.

'"Man with snake tattoos falls for snake girl," kinda poetic. Hehehe." Tiza joked as she and her brother chuckled.

"Shut up!" Dolph said angrily.

_"Could all of you just shut up?" _Bernard thought as he continued to stare.

"She's unique looking... But not my kind of piece frankly. Minus the attractive one, these three are frankly ugly to me." Claudia said as she shrugged her shoulders and moved away from the time box.

_"Note to self: headbutt the art critics face into a paste..."_ Bernard thought, becoming more and more agitated by her criticisms of his friends.

"Enough of the banter, we all know what we came for." Claudia said as she made a serious face as she turned towards her allies.

'"Yes milady!"' Dolph, Loumo, Tazo and Tiza said in unison as Claudia turned her head towards the crib where the baby was, an evil smirk forming on her face as she walked over.

_"...Oh no... She's here for the baby?!" _Bernard thought in shock as his eyes widened in surprise. _"I gotta think of something fast or that kid is a goner!" _He thought in worry. _"Okay, I need a plan."_

Looming over the baby, who was asleep and unknowingly surrounded in her crib by mysterious and nefarious individuals.

"Now, now, no need to wake up..." Claudia said as she looked over the baby before reaching her hand down into the crib to grab the child. "Once I am done with you... You will be beautiful art..." She said with an evil tone.

"Cute kid, ain't she?" Said a new voice.

"Perfect for my art, don'tcha- huh? Who said that?" Claudia said until she noticed the new voice as her and her team looked around to see where it came from.

Looking upward, the group was surprised by the appearance of Corvus, the crow Celestial Spirit, above them. Surprised by the sudden appearance of the bird, the intruders stepped back somewhat as Corvus flew down and picked up the baby with his talons, wrapped in the sheets as Corvus flew over to Bernard, now carrying the baby in his hands.

"Hey! Get back here you damn turkey!" Dolph screamed.

"I'm a crow! You asshole!" Corvus exclaimed in response as he flapped next to Bernard.

"Easy, Corvus. We're not out of the woods yet..." Bernard said as he held the baby in his hands as he stared at the group.

"Well, well, well. Loumo, it looks like you missed one." Tiza said with a serious look on her face as Loumo made an upset expression as he looked over his camera.

"How about doing us a favor and giving us back our art subject?" Tazo said with a serious look as he put out his hand, requesting Bernard to hand over the child.

"How about you twits piss off before my friend here shows what it feels like to be electified..." Bernard said threateningly as Corvus started to spark up.

"Ohhh..." Claudia said with intrigue as she saw Corvus spark up. "Never seen something like that before." She said with curiosity.

_"There's too many of these guys, I need the element of surprise here... I'll only just have Corvus be out to be careful..."_ Bernard thought with worry as he attempted to strategize. "Corvus... Be on your guard..." He said cautiously.

"Already aware..." Corvus said as his body sparks up with electricity.

"Loumo." Claudia said as she locked eyes with Bernard. "Hand me my camera." She said as she raised her hand out for Loumo to give her the camera he is holding.

"Y-yes Master Claudia..." Loumo said nervously as he gave away the magical camera as Claudia examined it.

"Dolph, tattoos." Claudia said as she looked over the camera, not paying attention to Bernard as Dolph walked forward, an evil grin on his face.

_"Claudia... And that camera stops time around anything it catches in the lens... We gotta make sure we remain out of that things sightline..." _Bernard thought as he tightly held the baby in his arms.

"Easy kid, hang back." Corvus said as he got in front of Bernard to protect him and the baby.

"Tattoo Magic... Viper Party." Dolph said sinisterly as a magic circle appeared below his feet as the multiple snake tattoos on his chest and face started to move off his body and come to life in a myriad of living green snakes that appeared with faded bodies. Slithering along the ground towards Bernard and Corvus, the duo started to back up slowly.

"Uhhh Corvus... A little lightning would be nice!" Bernard said fearfully as the tattoo snakes continued to move towards them.

"Got it kid!" Corvus said as he begun to fire lightning bolts towards the snakes, causing them to dissipate into paint on the ground. "Hahaha! Suck on- Huh?!" Corvus said until he turned his attention towards Claudia, holding the camera and pointing it towards the crow Celestial Spirit.

"Say "cheese!"' Claudia exclaimed as she pressed the button on the camera, the flash enveloping Corvus and trapping him inside a time box, freezing him in place.

"Crap! Corvus!" Bernard said as Corvus was stuck inside the box, stuck in midair. _"Damn it, I gotta get help from Vulp or Baurs!"_ He thought as he reached his right hand with the bracelet of Baurs towards his pacemaker.

As Bernard lifted his arm, a sudden breeze swung past his hair as an object flew past his head and pierced the wall behind Bernard in the room. Looking back, he saw a faded playing card sticking out of the wall with incredibly sharp edges. Turning his attention back forward, Bernard noticed Tiza holding a series of cards that Dolph was handing over to her as she casually flipped the cards between her fingers with a cruel smile on her face.

"Well... I believe the game is over now." Claudia said with a smirk as she put her camera back in Loumos hands. "Now then, do us a fave and don't move, please." She said with a sarcastic tone.

"I'm not letting you take this kid." Bernard said as he continued to clutch Merilo in his arms. _"No more "element of surprise..."'_ He thought nervously.

"You don't have much of a choice, punk." Dolph said with a smirk as he reached behind his back and pulled out a series of faded kunai knifes from his tattoos and handed them to Tazo.

"We want the baby, you give her to us and we promise we won't hurt you or them. Deal?" Claudia said as she begun to walk towards Bernard.

"Piss off." Bernard said sternly as he stepped back somewhat, swallowing spit in nervousness as Claudia got within breathing distance of him. Reaching into her utility belt around her waist, Claudia pulled out her curved knife and held it up to Bernards face.

"...I heard about you from the puckered lipped old man that you have a defect where you have a little rock in your chest just to keep yourself alive..." Claudia said with a harsh tone as she poked her knife against Bernards left chest, specifically the area where his Lacrima pacemaker was. "Something about the idea of you having that makes me... Disgusted..." She said with a disgruntled look in her eyes as she eyed Bernard.

"...And just why does that bother you?" Bernard said with an angered expression.

"You're just so... Ugly... You have no beauty or artistic value on you." Claudia said critically as she stared down Bernard.

_'"Artistic value?" The hell does any of that mean?!"_ Bernard thought offended as he looked at Claudia, mere inches from her face.

"I'm going to give you a choice; the baby oooor..." Claudia said as she pointed her knife towards Tiza, who was pointing the sharp card tattoos towards the group of captives in the time box, and Tazo, who was pointing the kunai tattoos at Corvus. "My friends will turn everyone else here into a dartboard. Your choice." She said with a cruel look on her face.

"_...I..."_ Bernard thought with a mixture of anger, fear and confusion of what to do. "...Why do you want this baby?" He questioned with a serious tone.

"...To turn her into an art piece that will capture "innocence in a physical form."' Claudia said as she pointed her curved dagger as Bernards neck. "She will be immortalized as art by the great Claudia Vanderheems hands... Now give me the baby..." She said with a tone of violence in her voice.

_"...I'm not going to survive this if I don't do something..." _Bernard thought as he stared down Claudia.

"Give me the damn baby!" Claudia screamed as she lifted her curved dagger upward for a downward swing.

"Okay!" Bernard replied quickly as he put one of his hands up to stop her before she stabbed him. "I'll give you the child..." He said with hesitation as he looked down at Merilos sleeping infant face.

"...Good..." Claudia said with a face that appeared to have calmed down somewhat.

"Wise decision." Tazo said as his sister nodded as Dolph moved forward towards Bernard and outreached his hands to take the child from Bernards grasp.

"Give her here..." Dolph said with a smirk as Bernard handed the child to the tattooed man as he and Claudia walked away back towards Tazo, Tiza and Loumo.

"Hold on..." Bernard said as Claudia turned back towards him. "You aren't leaving until you free them..." He said as he pointed towards the partygoers and Corvus in their time boxes.

"Hmmm? Oh right, these people." Claudia said as she looked at the trapped partygoers and the crow Celestial Spirit. "Tazo, Loumo." She said as she snapped her fingers to beckon them as Loumo and Tazo walked over to her.

"Here you are." Tazo said as he gave Claudia a large red suitcase that he had hidden under his overly elegant cloak.

"Yo-you can hav-have this too..." Loumo said in his usual nervous tone as he handed over the camera as Claudia opened up the suitcase and rummaged around inside it. Reaching around, Claudia pulled out a little white clay figurine in the shape of a scorpion-like creature with no spot where the head would be.

_"...Shot in the dark; she isn't going to free them..." _Bernard thought as he looked at Claudia, holding her figurine.

Waving her hand over the figurine, she threw it on the ground as the scorpion-like clay figure started to suddenly unleash purple smoke into the room as the doll begun to grow in size and begun to move like a giant monstrous scorpion the size of a rhinoceros.

"This is a sculpture of mine, I didn't name it anything unfortunately. But I did think for a minute of a fun little game you could play with it." Claudia said with a dark smirk as she placed her camera in the hole where the head would be on the giant scorpion sculpture. "This camera is holding everyone here inside it, all you have to do is get the camera. Good luck!" Claudia said as she and her team ran towards the exit door to the room, escaping with Merilo.

"Hey!- Guh!" Bernard exclaimed angrily as the clay scorpion started to approach him. "God damn it!" Bernard said loudly as he ran around the scorpion creature with the camera head as the monster started to chase him.

Running around the room, Bernard rushed on top of the snack tables and begun to leap over the food as the scorpion sculpture swatted its massive spiked tail at the tables and broke them one by one in an effort to hit Bernard.

"Baurs! Help!" Bernard shouted as the bracelet around his wrist that stored Baurs begun to expand and formed into her large rock lizard form. As he ran off to the side, Baurs stood in the way of the scorpion monster and begun to push against it to keep it away from Bernard.

"Ugh! Heavy!" Baurs exclaimed as she struggled to push against the sculpture.

"Damn it, Vulp!" Bernard said as light particles begun to come out Bernards pacemaker and formed into Vulp. "Use your tail! Grab that damn camera!" He ordered as Vulp complied and outstretched his tail to grab the camera.

While Baurs used her bodily strength to push back against the equally sized scorpion figure, Vulp fished his tail around the camera head of the monster and yanked it off of his head as the monster still continued to thrash about.

_"Still moving..."_ Bernard thought while looking at the scorpion as Vulp held the camera in his tail. "Baurs, mud spray!" He shouted as Baurs opened her mouth and begun to fire out a torrent of muddy water, pressing back against the scorpion as it flew backwards towards the wall of the room as it was soaked in mud. "Vulp! Crush it!"

As Bernard commanded, Vulps dropped the camera on the ground as his tail begun to morph into a hammer-like object as it expanded to a much larger size as Vulp lifted up the hammer and slammed the scorpion with enough force to turn it into a crushed pile of clay and mud, destroying it.

"...Finally..." Bernard sighed with relief as he fell down onto his butt with Baurs and Vulp approaching back towards him. "Now how the hell can I fix that?" He said as he and the others looked over towards the partygoers who were trapped in the time box.

"Perhaps the camera?" Baurs questioned as Vulp poked his paw against the camera as Bernard picked it up.

"Don't know how this works though." Bernard said as he looked over it. "Hmmmm… What if we just broke it?" He questioned to the confused fox Celestial Spirit and Earth Elemental.

"Think that's a good idea? If it doesn't work, what other options do we have?" Baurs questioned.

"Hmmmm… Vulp, hammer tail again?" Bernard asked of Vulp as he turned his tail into a giant mallet once again to prepare to smash the camera but Bernard waved his hand in front of the fox before he could do anything. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute..." He said as he started to think as he put the camera down on the ground and looked over towards the large time box where the partygoers and his friends were stuck inside.

"Thinking?" Baurs said as Vulp looked on with similar interest as Bernard looked around at the people in the box before turning his attention towards Count Balsamico and Aceto in the group before looking over at the crushed snack table he ran around and then over at the crushed remains of the clay scorpion sculpture.

_"...This isn't going to help my case..."_ Bernard thought as he scratched at his chin before walking over to one of the curtains that were covering a window in the room, ripping it down and tearing into it with his bare hands. "Baurs, go over to the crib area and crush it with your tail." He commanded to Baurs and Vulps confusion.

"Why would you want me to do that?" Baurs asked confused.

"Trust me, it's going to help in the long run." Bernard said as he continued to tear down the curtains and walked over to the crushed remains of the snack tables as Baurs stomped over to the crib where Merilo originally was and smashed it into pieces. "Vulp, can you give me a curved blade of some kind from your tail?" He asked as Vulp continued to sit around on standby with the mallet-like tail as Vulps tail stretched some strands of hair over to Bernard and formed into a curved blade-like protrusion that he held in his hand. _"This is gonna sting..."_ Bernard thought as he swallowed spit and made a slight cut into his clothes around his right shoulder with some of the cuts slicing into his arm on purpose.

"Can you explain your plan please?" Baurs questioned, her tone becoming slightly bothered by the lack of conveyance from her owner.

"We're "turning the wheels" in our favor, so to speak. Okay, so Vulp, I want you to smash the camera, I'm assuming this is going to unfreeze everybody and once we smash the camera, we'll all fall down as if we had just been knocked out and act like we were beaten pretty badly to everyones surprise. Got it?" Bernard explained as Baurs and Vulp cautiously nodded.

Raising the hammer tail, Vulp smashed the camera with his tail, obliterating the magical camera and the Lacrima attached to it into small pieces. Upon its destruction, Bernard, Baurs and Vulp all fell down onto the ground in different manners. Suddenly, as they fell, a magic circle appeared underneath the partygoers and Corvus' time boxes as the boxes begun to dispel and disappear as they were freed from their captivity.

'"Cheese!"' The partygoers said in unison until they suddenly noticed the flash of light from the camera they were in front of disappeared and begun to notice something weird.

"Huh?" Camilla mumbled as she felt her back feel sore and stiff.

"What was that?" Anatoli said in confusion as he and the other people from the party started to look around and noticed the room seemed different. They started to notice the destroyed aspects of the room they were celebrating in with the crushed furnishings, damage to the walls, torn curtains and the noticeable absence of the nights most important person.

"M-Merilo?" Aceto said nervously as she quickly rushed over to the crib where she last saw her daughter as her father soon joined her in shock at the missing body of the infant.

"What happened here?" Pietro said with growing concern as he looked at the damage to the room as Marlene looked around and noticed Vulp and Baurs supposedly unconscious states.

"Baurs, Vulp! Are you okay?!" Marlene said as she checked on the pair as Baurs started to move and looked at Marlene.

"I'm... Okay?" Baurs said cautiously as she looked over at Bernard, now with cuts and tears in his clothes as he was laying on his back with his eyes closed.

"Ber-Bernard?!" Camilla exclaimed in surprise as she, the other Psycho Circus wizards and Corvus rushed to check on their fallen comrade. Lifting him up to a seated position, Bernard opened his eyes slowly and clutched at his right shoulder.

"Ugh... Bout time you guys got out..." Bernard said with a tone of pain.

"What do you mean "got out?" What happened?!" Corvus exclaimed in confusion and surprise.

"We got a problem..." Bernard said as he looked over at Aceto and Count Balsamico, tears in their eyes and worried over the disappearance of the baby.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Balsamico Manor, 8:06 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

The next day, after the general partygoers went home confused and scared, the Psycho Circus wizards stayed the night within the castle as originally promised by the count and his daughter, agitated and bothered by what had transpired. Meanwhile, within a guest room, Aceto and Count Balsamico were speaking to a representative of the Magic Council, who had arrived with several soldiers from the royal kingdom as security for the home, to discuss what happened. As they spoke; Camilla, Anatoli, Pietro and Marlene, dressed back in their casual attires, all sat together in a guest room of their own.

"...Can't believe this all happened under our noses..." Anatoli said with an aggravated tone as he sat on his ball.

"Me neither..." Camilla said as she sat on a couch with Pietro next to her.

"Based on what Bernard had said, they were wizards disguised as the catering staff and their target was the infant. He tried to fight back and got badly hurt because of it..." Pietro said as he looked at the others before turning his attention to Marlene, who was looking out the window of the room. "You alright?" He questioned towards the chameleon-like girl

"Oh uh, yeah, I am fine..." Marlene said with a tired tone as she looked at the others. _"That Dolph guy... He was in the group that took the child..."_ She thought with a worried and contemplative tone.

"Thankfully, Bernies wounds were superficial at best but he was still conked out... Speaking of which, where is he?" Anatoli said as he looked around.

"Bernard told me to get us all here and wait for him. I think he is out walking about the castle." Camilla said as she sat back.

"I wonder why..." Pietro said as he folded his arms in a contemplative manner.

"Maybe he's trying to talk the count into giving him the money without needing to perform since the kid ain't here. Hehe- uh..." Anatoli said, trying to make a joke before everyone stared at him for the inappropriate comment. "S-sorry... Too soon..." He apologized while scratching the back of his head.

"I think Bernard seems the most angry about what happened." Marlene said as she spoke up.

"Can't deny that, he was the only one who tried to stop whoever took Merilo." Pietro replied.

"...A woman with a curved knife, black hair in a ponytail and she couldn't stop muttering about "art." A brother and sister dressed in overly extravagant frilly clothes, a man with tattoos all over his body and a large guy with a flat head and a nervous way of talking... They sound like they stand out but I can't think of anyone like that." Camilla said as she tried to think.

"Sounds like dark wizards regardless..." Anatoli said with a serious tone.

"It's too late though for us to deal with anything." Pietro said as he stood up, causing everyone to look at him. "The Magic Council and the royal army have already been called in and we have nothing to contribute to the situation at hand. We may as well start packing to go back home to the guild." He explained as he walked over to a suitcase.

"He may be right..." Marlene said as she scratched her neck in a depressed manner as Camilla and Anatoli looked at eachother with concern.

Suddenly, the door swung up to the room as Bernard quickly came in, holding a sheet of paper and an angry look in his eyes, causing everyone to turn their attention towards him.

"Put the bags down, we aren't leaving yet." Bernard said bluntly as he walked over to the bed in the guest room.

"Hey, calm down. You're still injured from last night." Camilla stated as she stood up to calm down Bernard.

"I'm fine! We have bigger fish to fry! A group of fish actually..." Bernard said as he placed the paper down on the bed and spread it out as the others huddled around him to see what it was.

"A map of the surrounding valley? Why do you have this?" Anatoli questioned.

"To help us find something. We all need to get ready because in less than an hour, we're going to this area here." Bernard said as he pointed to an area of the map.

"Why? What for?" Camilla said with confusion at Bernards overly direct behavior. Suddenly, Bernard turned and looked at everyone in his group as they backed up slightly to see his overly determined expression.

"I'll explain on the way to the valley, but I'll tell you this much; we are going to find that damn kid and then we are going to kick these bastards asses..." Bernard said with a serious tone in his voice as he looked at his comrades from Psycho Circus.

* * *

**...Now this is a sight I have been wanting to see. The mysterious group of dark wizards, led by Claudia Vanderheem, have succeeded in acquiring their target; the young baby Merilo from her first birthday party. With Bernard and his pets failing to protect her and having to hand over the child to the evil wizards intent on turning her into "art," a certain beast owning young man isn't taking the loss lightly. Staging the scene, Bernard has told his friends from Psycho Circus to get ready because they are going to mount a rescue. What will happen next time on Menagerie? See you next time to find out!**

**Authors Note: (Hey, Merry Christmas from America, it's me and this is going to be the last chapter before Christmas happens on December 25th (and perhaps for the remainder of 2019) Hope you all have a decent time and thanks for keeping up with me and the story since May, please keep it up with the reviews, it always makes me happy to see people talking about the story and giving their thoughts.)**


	37. Chapter 37

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tamarisk Forest, 9:04 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"And that is basically what I did back at the Balsamicos and why we are out here." Bernard said as he held up an envelope with the insignia for the Fiore royal family.

Within a small open area within Tamarisk Forest, several miles from the castle of Count Balsamico, was Bernard, who was sitting on a tree stump as he told back the story of what happened at the castle the night prior with their run in with Claudia Vanderheem and her minions. Sitting on a set of knocked down logs, minus Anatoli as he was sitting on his ball as usual and Baurs as she stood around, was Camilla, Pietro, Marlene as well as Corvus and Vulp, each having wide eyed expressions on their faces in surprise and still sporting their Psycho Circus collars.

"Let me get this straight..." Anatoli said with a surprised expression. "You fought against this artist chick and her cronies but she threatened to kill everyone so you stopped and gave her the kid as a trade off." He said, stating back what Bernard said.

"Yup..." Bernard said casually.

"Then you fought some sculpture that came to life, destroyed some of the room to make it look like the fighting was more violent than it actually was so you could twist the story to make it look like you struggled to save the child and all of us to make the Balsamicos seem like they could trust you and let us handle the rescue and not the Magic Council." Camilla said with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh huh..." Bernard mumbled casually.

"Then to further the reasons why the Magic Council should let you handle this, you flashed them the envelope you got from a couple days ago from Princess Hisui to make it seem like you have the authorization, effectively lying to the government..." Marlene said, just as bewildered as the rest of the Psycho Circus wizards were at Bernards planning.

"Just so you could get some revenge on this woman and rescue the clients infant child." Pietro said.

"And didn't tell us this plan until just now..." Corvus said with a shocked expression as he sat on top of Baurs large lizard head.

"Should I just repeat the whole thing back again?" Bernard said as he held his head down, growing increasingly annoyed at everyone.

"That's... Actually incredibly impressive." Camilla said as Bernard raised his head with a raised eyebrow.

"Deviously awesome." Corvus said with surprise.

"Downright genius." Pietro said with an impressed expression as he looked at Bernard.

"So cool." Marlene said with an honest tone.

"Evil and manipulative... I approve." Anatoli said with a thumbs up as Bernards eye started to twitch from the compliments.

_"I didn't tell you all of this just so you guys could be impressed..."_ Bernard thought with annoyance. "Alright, now that everyone has gotten the gist of what happened, does anyone have any questions?" He said as Marlene and Anatoli raised their hands and Baurs raised her tail in questioning.

"Who are we dealing with specifically?" Marlene questioned.

"Why are we in this forest?" Anatoli wondered.

"Are you acting as the leader of the group finally?" Baurs asked, prompting Bernards eye to twitch once again.

"Okay, first of all, I'll answer Marlenes question." Bernard said as he scratched his head. "I got this info from the Magic Council representative that showed up at the Balsamicos after I flashed him the insignia. So I don't have to tell you already we are dealing with a dark guild." He explained.

"That much we know already but who are they?" Pietro said as he rubbed his chin in intrigue.

"They are called "Pazuzu's Easel." They are a dark guild that came about under a year ago after the Alvarez War and they have been becoming infamous for high amounts of thefts and kidnappings from what I was told." Bernard explained.

"Pazuzu's Easel? I've never heard of them." Anatoli said with confusion.

"They try to be discreet. They go to places or find targets they want and then attempt to steal or take what they desire as quickly as possible so they don't leave a paper trail. Hence the time stopping camera their leader had." Bernard continued.

"I couldn't feel like I could move or sense anything when that camera went off..." Marlene said as she rubbed her arm in worry.

"Then that's a sign of what we are to expect; sneak attacks and sucker punches." Camilla said as she folded her arms.

"That's one thing. As for why we are in this forest, I asked for any kind of leads as to where Pazuzu's Easels hideout could be and the guy from the council said that they used magical detectors to try and track down some of their lesser members and found they are hidden somewhere here but they only got as far as where we are standing right now." Bernard said as he stood up and looked around at the trees in the forest.

"So we are in the heart of their hideout?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"Or we are at the front gate..." Pietro said with a serious tone.

"Either way, we are probably the closest anyone in Fiore has ever been to getting anywhere near where they operate out of." Anatoli said as he looked around at the woods.

"Excuse me?" Baurs said, speaking up.

"...Yeah?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"Aren't going to answer my question?" Baurs said. Following her question, the Psycho Circus wizards all formed smug looks on their faces as they all turned to look at Bernard, who was looking at his allies with a troubled expression, awaiting his answer.

"...No." Bernard said bluntly with a blush of embarrassment forming on his face. As he refused, Anatoli formed a mischievous smirk on his face.

"Alright then! Let's take a vote! Everyone who votes for Bernie to be "acting commander" say "aye!"' Anatoli said loudly as he raised his hand up high to Bernards surprise and chagrin.

'"Aye!"' Everyone, besides Bernard and Vulp, because the fox can't talk, muttered enthusiastically as Bernard was reaching a tipping point with his annoyance.

"Seriously!? Why the hell should I be in charge of this whole thing?!" Bernard complained.

"You were the one requested to entertain that kid before everything went awry." Pietro said with a shrug.

"Then felt like acting like a "big deal hero" and convince the council to let you rescue the kid yourself." Marlene said smugly.

"So what?! You expecting me to handle this all myself?!" Bernard questioned in his frustration.

"I mean, yeah, me and Vulp and the big rock lizard could help like normal buuutttt…" Corvus said, expecting Bernard to give them a certain answer.

"...Camilla? You're the S-class wizard here..." Bernard said to his technical girlfriend.

"Oh? I'm not on the clock here sadly, isn't my job request honey." Camilla said with a smirk as she looked away from Bernard, his aggravation becoming more and more apparent.

"...Pietro?" Bernard said with half closed eyes and a desire to punch his friends in the face slowly rising.

"...Be a good learning experience for your eventual succession of your father, don'tcha think?" Pietro said with a smile as he acknowledged the rage forming on Bernards face.

"I hope a horse kicks all of you to death!" Bernard shouted loudly towards his friends and pets, who were chuckling over his overreacting.

"Calm down, we're only kidding." Camilla said with a smile as she laughed as Bernards face started to soften. "All we're saying is that we want you to handle this and have us support you at the same time." She said with an earnest tone as he looked at Marlene and Anatoli who nodded in response.

"If it helps, consider this the same as when you are teaching us routines at the guild, only this time it's not performances, it's tactics." Pietro said, giving advice to Bernard.

"...How about you?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow towards Corvus, Vulp and Baurs.

"You know I have nothing better to do than to follow your barking. Hehehe." Corvus joked as Vulp nodded in compliance.

"As part of our agreement, I will do whatever you say." Baurs said with a casual tone.

_"The last thing I want is the responsibility of taking care of all these peoples like some leader but they keep throwing it in my face..." _Bernard thought troubled before sighing and then looking around at his team. "...Fine but one rule: no referring to me as "leader" or "captain" or "master." Got it?" He said sternly towards everyone.

'"Got it, boss!"' Everyone exclaimed jokingly as they all stood up from where they sat.

"Or that!" Bernard madly shouted. "Anyway, I want everyone to divide up into the teams I've thought up to begin combing the forest for any signs of Pazuzu's Easel. Anatoli, you're with Corvus." He exclaimed as he pointed at the monkey-like wizard and the crow Celestial Spirit.

"Awww! Why am I with the chimp?!" Corvus complained as Anatoli looked at him with annoyance.

"Both of you have the ability to fly, you guys can work together to search above ground more easily than anyone here. And no complaining." Bernard explained sternly.

"What are we looking for anyway?" Corvus said as he flapped his wings to get into the air.

"Any sort of structures in the woods, like buildings or hideouts that could potentially be their base." Bernard explained. "Marlene, come here. I got something for you." He said towards the chameleon-like girl as she approached him.

Turning around and rummaging through a sack, Bernard pulled out a belt with loops and pouches and handed it over to Marlene.

"What's this?" Marlene said with surprise.

"Seeing Claudia have one, I figured this could be useful for you. You can use it to store some salves or potions or elixirs from plants in the forest." Bernard said as Marlene started to put the belt around her waist.

"Wow, this is actually very thoughtful of you." Marlene said with a happy expression as she adjusted the belt.

"Seeing as how we are both the weakest members of the group, I figured you should have the help with something on hand in case of emergencies." Bernard explained as Marlene made a surprised and confused face at his reaction.

_"I know you're my friend and I am not much of a fighter but you could've not said that..."_ Marlene thought with annoyance from Bernards acknowledgement of her lack of skills with combat. "So what do you want me to do?" She asked.

"Baurs." Bernard said as he turned towards the giant rock lizard. "I want you to have Marlene ride on you and take her through the forest so she can scavenge some herbs and flowers she could find useful. Protect her and while she does that, look around for clues to the base like Anatoli and Corvus are doing." He explained.

"As you wish." Baurs said with compliance.

"Oh! And I'll use my Camouflage Magic to make us invisible in case we see anyone or anything suspicious for cover." Marlene said.

"I was just about to suggest that. Now get going, all of you." Bernard said as Anatoli and Corvus flew into the air to begin searching as Marlene hopped on the back of Baurs as she used her magic to make the pair of them invisible as they rode off into the woods to begin their own searching mission as Bernard turned and saw them ride off.

_"Okay, they'll be searching and now- Huh?" _Bernard thought until he noticed a pair of slender arms intertwine with his left arm as he felt a soft sensation cling to his side. Turning his head, he locked eyes with Camilla, who was giving him a look of expectation and arousal.

"Soooo..." Camilla said with a smile and a seductive gaze towards the surprised Bernard. "Next step in the "big masterplan?" As if I couldn't already guess. Hehehe." She said with a chuckle to Bernards confusion.

"Excuse me?" Bernard replied.

"Don't think I couldn't guess what you want. Go tell Vulp and Pietro where they are going so I can stay here and be your "bodyguard" of sorts." Camilla said with a smirk as she got close enough to Bernards face to whisper in his ear. "I promise I won't let anything bad happen with you and me all alone... Hehehe." She said in a flirting manner as she breathed a cool breeze of air from her mouth into his ear, causing a tingling sensation to shoot up Bernards spine..

As she clung to him, Bernard looked down and noticed Vulp had approached the pair and started to sit against Bernards leg, gently nuzzling his soft fox head against Bernards leg like a loving pet towards their owner would, as if to curry favor with Bernard.

"Can both of you stop it? You're both a team too." Bernard said, surprising Camilla and Vulp.

"What?! Why?!" Camilla exclaimed in surprise as Vulp looked up in equal shock at Bernard.

"I need you two to act as backup for the other teams. Vulp, your shapeshifting is incredibly useful and can help save Marlene and Baurs if they get into trouble so go follow where they went. Camilla, I want you to follow Anatoli and Corvus because your Barrier Magic might keep them from dying if they fall out of the air." Bernard explained as he backed away from his overly clingy companions.

"But then what are you going to do?" Camilla questioned.

"I'm going to have Pietro protect me, I need to talk with him about some things too." Bernard said as he turned towards Pietro.

"Oh?" Pietro replied with intrigue.

"...Ugh. Fine..." Camilla said disgruntled as Vulp lowered his head in a sad expression. Noticing their unenthusiastic states, Bernard sighed before coming to a resolution.

"Look, if you both just do what I ask and we can get this over and done with as quickly as possible... When we get back to Hemlock, I'll do something for the both of you, that good?" Bernard said with a blush of embarrassment on his face as Camilla and Vulp perked up upon hearing his words.

"Deal!" Camilla said happily as Vulp eagerly nodded in response to Bernards offer. "Let's get going then." Camilla said as she turned towards Vulp, who nodded in compliance as Camilla proceeded to approach Bernard and kissed him on his cheek.

"Hey, what the?!" Bernard replied in response to Camillas sudden smooch.

"For good luck, bye!" Camilla said with a cheery attitude as she walked off into the forest towards the direction Anatoli and Corvus flew off to. As she walked away, Vulp approached Bernard, as if to request something.

"I know what you want..." Bernard said tiredly as he begun to pet Vulps head as the fox Celestial Spirit enjoyed the feeling of Bernard displaying a sign of affection before turning away and following after Marlene and Baurs, leaving Bernard alone with Pietro.

"I'd call you a "lucky man" but I'd think you'd come up with some roundabout way of saying you don't like having close friends, a lovely girlfriend and loyal pets like you have. Hehehe." Pietro joked as he sat back on his stump with Bernard sitting down as well.

"It's not like I don't appreciate it but my mind is elsewhere right now and sudden displays of affection and loyalty aren't my concerns..." Bernard said with a serious expression towards the old strongman.

"That the reason you wanted to talk to me?" Pietro questioned.

"I'm... Nervous..." Bernard said honestly as Pietro raised an eyebrow.

"I'd be too if I suddenly decided to take matters into my own hands and would go on a dangerous mission like this." Pietro replied.

"Back in Hargeon on that slaver ship, I left everything up to Corvus and Vulp and I barely knew them so I didn't feel so worried about anything happening. In Crocus, there was the Hungry Wolf Knights, who I barely knew, to help too. On the island at Nereid Lake, it was Baurs. Every time I have dealt with some serious garbage like this, I had help from outside sources I barely knew..." Bernard explained.

"And now you are feeling worried because everyone involved here is a comrade or a friend of yours. The whole "I don't want to be a leader" schtick you have been displaying is becoming more and more difficult because all you have is people you are worried about at your side." Pietro stated as Bernard locked eyes with him.

"...Can't believe I am doing this but I could use some advice..." Bernard said with a look of concern.

"The leader asking a subordinate for advice? Sounds like a joke your father would make." Pietro said with a smirk to Bernards confusion.

"That's not very helpful..." Bernard said with furrowed brows.

"Let me ask this then; why do you want to save that kid? Is it because you won't get the payment for the job you were originally supposed to do? Or is it because you want to help Psycho Circus get some recognition for attempting to save a kidnapped child? Or is it something else?" Pietro questioned to the quiet Bernard. "Could it be... You don't feel like letting yourself down again?"

"...Huh?" Bernard mumbled.

"Like you said, you gave up the child to save everyone at the party last night and perhaps you feel guilty about giving up the kid when you could have fought harder. But that's not you, you were always the "thinker" when it comes to situations like the one we're in. We wouldn't be out here if you weren't sure we could save her and all this planning wasn't worth it." Pietro explained as Bernard continued to look at him.

"...There's just so much riding on me here, this is more serious than I ever expected a wizard job to get..." Bernard said as he took off his beanie and begun to scratch his head.

"All part of being a wizard and all part of being a member of a guild. It's responsibility, no matter what way you swing it. Jobs have always been diverse, sometimes it's simply collecting mushrooms and scaring off weretigers and then next thing you know, you get a job like this to rescue kidnapping victims. It definitely happens." Pietro said.

"I said I wanted advice and all I am getting from you is stuff I already kinda figured out..." Bernard said with annoyance as he put his beanie back on his head.

"As your friend and mentor figure, it's my job to remind you of these things until I don't need to tell you it anymore." Pietro said with a smirk as Bernard made a smirk back at his comment.

"So what about you? What's your take on being told what to do by the guild masters "ne'er-do-well" of a son?" Bernard asked.

"Don't talk about yourself like that." Pietro stated bluntly.

"Huh?" Bernard muttered in surprise of Pietros sudden response.

"To be completely honest, this is a moment I'm frankly proud to see." Pietro said honestly as Bernard raised an eyebrow. "I've been expecting you to take over for your father for years and I always got the feeling you would come back and act like a man, even after you left the first time. I've known you since your birth and always knew you had a good head on your shoulders but this... Using everything you could think of to usurp the Magic Council and to mount a rescue of a child from a sociopathic dark guild. What more proof do I need that you earned my respect and loyalty?" Pietro said as he extended his hand out for a handshake.

"You make me sound like a hero from a crappy novella..." Bernard joked as he extended his hand as he and Pietro shook eachothers hands in comradery.

"Besides that. You're the only other sensible option to be the guild master. You have a biological link to the guild master so you are first in line, only other person who is up for debate is the S-class wizards."

"We only have two S-class wizards in Psycho Circus. And we both know Camilla would rather me be on top of her then the other way around... In both sense of the term. Hehehe." Bernard joked as Pietro chuckled in response to the bad joke.

"And the other option is..." Pietro said before speaking the persons name.

"...Definitely out of the question… Ugh..." Bernard said as he shuddered in response to whom the pair were referring to.

"If he was in charge, the guild would go under from scandals..." Pietro said as he put his hand on his face.

"And all the pregnancies too..." Bernard muttered.

"Hard to believe he is one of the guilds best wizards..." Pietro said with a bothered expression forming.

"Enough! Talking about him is just going to affect our morale so let's just get back to the matter at hand." Bernard said, interrupting.

"So what's the plan when the others find the base?" Pietro said.

"I have some ideas but to simplify things, we are going to have a distraction on hand to allow us an opportunity to sneak in." Bernard said. "Then when we get inside their base, the plan is to look for the kid immediately, we can't get distracted by enemies." He explained.

"She said she was going to "make innocence in physical form" right? Any idea what that means?" Pietro questioned.

"...I might have an idea. She kept spewing platitudes about art and everything so my guess is that she plans to make an art piece with the baby..." Bernard with a serious and concerned expression.

"...What makes you think she hasn't already done this?" Pietro said as he rubbed his chin in intrigue.

"It's all speculation but... I think if this Claudia person is as convinced as she is that she is some "master artisan," she's taking her sweet time to come up with an idea to turn the kid into something... But like I said, it's all guessing at this point." Bernard said, assuming the odds.

"So we're against the clock now too..." Pietro stated.

"Yup..." Bernard replied.

"Then there's no time left to worry until they get back." Pietro said as he and Bernard stood up. "Don't let the fear of the odds cloud your judgement. That's when you need to rely on others to help with the decisions." He said as he approached Bernard.

"Wow, look at you giving decent advice." Bernard joked with a smirk.

"Wow, look at you smiling. Hehehe." Pietro joked back as the pair overheard footsteps approaching.

"Hey!" Camilla exclaimed as she and Vulp had returned from inside the woods. "Anatoli and Corvus found something." She said as Bernard and Pietro nodded and begun to follow the S-class wizard and fox Celestial Spirit into the forest.

Deep within the woods, the others stood around a sect of the forest looking upwards into the trees as they noticed something unusual about the nearby area. With Bernard and Pietro joining in, Bernard looked up with confusion as he begun to see what the others looked at.

"Are you seeing this?" Corvus exclaimed as he continued to stare with the others.

"Never seen something like this before..." Marlene remarked as Bernard stepped forward.

Reaching his hand out, Bernard placed his hand against the air but noticed an oddly hard surface against his palm. Putting both hands up and tracing the air, he noticed that the feeling of the air was the same as a canvas painting with trees and grass forming an illusion of further space within Tamarisk Forest.

"The hell?" Camilla stated with confusion.

"It's almost like a massive painting was erected here." Pietro said as he walked forward and touched the canvas.

"Corvus? Anatoli?" Bernard said as he turned towards the crow Celestial Spirit and chimp-like wizard.

"When we flew over the forest, we noticed the trees looked incredibly flat from the air." Anatoli explained.

"Almost like they weren't really there." Corvus said.

_"...So it's a box... Made of forest paintings..." _Bernard thought as he pondered the massive forest painting cutting off the forest. "I think I know what this is..." He stated.

"Tell us then." Baurs asked.

"Behind this painting might be their hideout. This giant mural is meant to hide the place within the woods so as to make it not stand out amongst the foliage. It's also probably a sign of what these idiots are all about; vain artwork practices." Bernard said as he theorized Pazuzu's Easels motivations.

"You think they are crazy artists?" Camilla said with surprise and confusion.

"Might be possible. That Claudia girl you mentioned is supposedly their leader and she wouldn't talking about stuff like that." Pietro said with intrigue.

"So by that logic, if we can get around this painting, we will find our way into their base." Baurs stated.

"Alrighty then, easy enough! All we gotta do is find the front door." Corvus said with a smirk as he flew to one side to start searching with the others ready to split up before Bernard spoke up to stop them.

"Wait, hold up." Bernard said as everyone turned to look at him. "I have a better idea." He stated.

"This should be interesting..." Anatoli remarked as Bernard looked at him with an odd look.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bernard said with a bothered expression.

"Oh nothing... Don't mind me." Anatoli stated sarcastically as Bernard turned away while rolling his eyes. _"Bout time you started acting like the boss, Bernie..."_ He said with a mildly impressed smirk forming.

"What we need is the element of surprise, they're more than likely going to be using it too so we are better off fighting fire with fire." Bernard said as he reached under his shirt and begun to press on his Lacrima pacemaker. "So I got the next best thing..."

"Formosa? How's that thing going to help here?" Marlene asked as Bernards body started to ooze slime as the giant monstrous fluid golem had emerged.

"Okay, I want everyone to follow my mark, so get behind a tree and wait." Bernard said as he begun to point a lot of magical energy into Formosa. As he commanded, the team of creatures and wizards begun to hide behind several trees as he continued to feed Formosa his powers.

Meanwhile, at the home base manor of Pazuzu's Easel, two red cloaked members of the dark guild were casually walking through the hallways of the manor, holding paintings.

"You think Master Claudia will like the work I've done?" One of the red cloaked members said.

"Totally! Look at the color distortion you did on your piece, it looks fantastic." The other red cloak said.

"Oh don't be so modest, look at yours! That reflective effect off the sun with the paint you used is really- Huh?!" The red cloaked member said until he turned his head towards a nearby window and noticed something peculiar.

The giant mural that protected the Pazuzu's Easel base from being seen was starting to become destroyed as a massive creature of fluid and bone-like spikes was beginning to destroy the painting that concealed the dark guilds home. Stomping its massive frame forward through the painting and approaching the base, the giant monster Formosa roared loudly as its sounds percussed through the manor.

"What is that thing?!" A red cloaked Pazuzu's Easel member said in shock as the others watched the giant arrive.

"Get the other members! Warn them!" Another red cloak member screamed as the lesser members scrambled around with some exiting the guild with notepads and glowing markers in hand.

"Everyone! Use your Picto Magic! We gotta stop this thing!" Another red cloak member of the dark guild exclaimed as they all started drawing on notepads with the glowing markers as magic circles formed.

"On that note... Move." Bernard said as he and the other members of Psycho Circus and the creatures begun to use the distraction as a way to get inside the manor. Sneaking by the cloaked members of Pazuzu's Easel, the team had slinked through the front door undetected into a foyer area that had several covered paintings in it.

"Alright! We're in!" Anatoli said enthusiastically.

"Good work Bernard!" Camilla said with a happy expression as she looked at her boyfriend who was beginning to check the doors within the hallway entrance.

"Celebrate later! We don't have time to waste right now!" Bernard said angrily as he begun to check for unlocked doors.

"Right! Everyone start looking for the child!" Pietro stated as the group nodded in response. Suddenly, a buzzing noise begun to be heard in the foyer as everyone looked up and noticed a speaker system begun to activate.

"Testing! Testing! One and two!" Said a female voice that was familiar to Bernard reverberating throughout the room.

"Who's that?" Marlene said.

"I recognize it... Claudia..." Bernard said with an angry expression.

"Well, well, well! If it isn't "Mr. Pacemaker" and his band of circus freaks. I guessed that large liquid freak of nature outside scaring my workers was your doing. I'm also not surprised you remember my name after last night and were introduced to my true greatness as an artisan! Color me impressed that you managed to find my home this quickly as well!" Said the disembodied voice of Claudia Vanderheem.

"You were easy to find! I sniffed the smell of your crappy paint stench all the way here!" Bernard said in an insulting tone.

"Childish insults will get you nowhere... But being as I am a person of a generous nature. I will, at the very least, give you some mental reprieve; the child hasn't been transformed into a sculpture of immense beauty just yet!" Claudia said over the intercom.

"Good... My gamble was correct..." Bernard said softly.

"Whatcha mean?" Camilla asked towards Bernard.

"I'd think if Claudia was anything like me, she would take her sweet time coming up with the best possible thing to make. Wouldn't want to rush "perfection," you know?" Bernard explained.

"Yuck! Did you just compare me and you as "similar beings?" Please... My genius and artistic merit far exceeds whatever pea brained sideshow act you could come up with!" Claudia insultingly exclaimed.

"Enough talk! Where's the kid, lady?!" Anatoli screamed as he stood on his ball.

"Oh? You're looking for the child? Why didn't you say so? Let me help you find her..." Claudia said over the intercom as magic circles begun to appear within the foyer area.

As the circles appeared, so did the cloth over some of the paintings in the room disappear as well. The paintings depicted black voids as the magic circles begun to appear over the pictures as the still images suddenly became animated as the dark voids spun violently.

"What the hell?!" Corvus said in surprise as everyone in the group begun to notice their bodies started to transform into liquid paint-like substances. Melting down and drawn in towards the paintings in the room. The Psycho Circus wizards, the Celestial Spirits and the Earth Elemental suddenly disappeared from the room as the magic circles disappeared and the painting vortexes stopped spinning.

* * *

**Dear lord, the tension is getting so thick, you could cut it with a knife and serve it for dinner. With Bernard using his cunning wit to usurp control of the situation into his hands, The Psycho Circus team goes to battle with the artisan dark guild known as Pazuzu's Easel, hidden deep within Tamarisk Forest. With their base uncovered and their primary forces distracted with the rampaging giant Formosa, things were going well for Bernard and co. until Claudia sprung into action. Has the team already been defeated or could they still be around to fight back and save the day? Who knows... Well someone does but he isn't saying a damn thing until next time... Til next time...**

**Authors Note: (Happy New Year! Next Chapter is a cut down! Woo!)**


	38. Chapter 38

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 10:58 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Inside a darkly lit room within the base of the dark guild, Pazuzu's Easel, a spinning vortex that was connected to a black painting had begun to spin around violently as a magic circle had appeared and out emerged some of the members of Psycho Circus.

"Guh!" Camilla exclaimed as she flopped out of the portal onto the ground onto her chest. Immediately after she hit the ground, out came Anatoli as he landed on Camillas backside.

"Blurgh!" Anatoli grunted as he landed on Camilla. "Ow that hurt- oh." He said as he noticed he landed on Camilla, who was glaring at him with anger.

"Do you mind?" Camilla said with a tone of aggression as Anatoli made an embarrassed expression as he looked at the agitated S-class wizard. Looking behind them at the portal, the two noticed another individual was about to come out of the spinning vortex, prompting them to quickly rush to the side to avoid Camilla and Anatoli being crushed as the Earth Elemental, Baurs, had arrived, her large frame leaving an indent in the ground as she landed.

_'"So glad we moved..."'_ Camilla and Anatoli thought with relief as Baurs begun to stood up on all fours as she turned over to see the pair of Psycho Circus wizards.

"Are you both alright?" Baurs said casually.

"Yeah, especially because you didn't crush us!" Anatoli said with annoyance as Camilla turned her head towards the painting to notice the spinning vortex disappeared from the portal painting they came out of. Walking over to it, she poked her finger against it to see if anything would happen.

"Well it looks like this isn't the way back..." Camilla said as she looked over at Anatoli and Baurs.

"Where the hell are we?" Anatoli said as he and Baurs looked around.

In the dark room, the group noticed the large array of tarps covering over a large variety of objects with only a few ceiling lamps keeping the room lit. Alongside the covered objects, there were shelves carrying a multitude of artist tools and random supplies such as jars, ropes and bags of random substances.

"Looks like a storage area." Camilla said as she looked around.

"Any idea as to where?" Baurs asked.

"Call it a hunch, but I think we are still in the Pazuzu's Easel base." Camilla said as she looked at Baurs and Anatoli, the latter looking around for something in the room.

"Can you tell?" Baurs questioned.

"Guess I'm pulling a "Bernard" here but taking into consideration how limited the power of that camera that stopped us yesterday had. I highly doubt this Claudia person has magical abilities that give her control over space to send us somewhere other than somewhere else in her own home." Camilla said, giving her analysis.

"Another location or same building, doesn't matter. This isn't good that we are separated from the rest." Baurs stated as she looked around. "I'm not doing a good job if I am this far away from my master to protect him." She stated as Camilla rubbed her neck.

_"Bernard can handle himself, he probably has Vulp and Corvus with him but even still... Baurs is right, everyone being separated like this in an unfamiliar place is not good."_ Camilla thought with concern.

"Damn it... Damn it..." Anatoli said as he looked around, catching Camilla and Baurs attention as they were confused watching him meander about. "Damn it!" He shouted loudly as he walked over to a bunch of the covered objects and looked behind them, searching for something.

"What's wrong?" Camilla asked as Anatoli turned towards the others.

"Where the hell is my ball!?" Anatoli exclaimed in a crazed tone.

"Huh?" Baurs muttered.

"We came out of that weird painting and I was on top of my big ball! And we are here now and I can't find the damn thing!" Anatoli exclaimed in frustration.

"Is now really the time to be going crazy over a dumb ball?" Camilla questioned with her eyes half closed.

"Hey! I love that ball so don't call it dumb!" Anatoli said as he pointed at Camilla.

"Why does that ball mean so much to him?" Baurs asked towards Camilla.

"It's like a "safety blanket" for him. He used to sit on a smaller one when we were kids and then he got that really large one when he grew up. He doesn't even need it to channel his Wind Magic, it's just something he likes having around like a lucky charm." Camilla explained with her arms folded as she looked at Anatoli still continuing to scramble around looking for the ball.

"Don't get me started on "lucky charms!"' Anatoli said disgruntled as he looked over at Camilla. "I bet you kiss Bernie every morning as some kind of "good luck ritual!"' He continued as Camillas face begun to blush profusely in response.

"Sh-shut up!" Camilla exclaimed in embarrassment. _"He isn't entirely wrong but I don't do it for good luck..." _She thought in the midst of the awkward conversation.

"Is now the time to argue?" Baurs asked as the two looked at the giant rock lizard.

"N-no... Sorry." Anatoli apologized as he looked at Camilla.

"Yeah, yeah... Me too." Camilla said, apologizing as well. "Look, we need to get back to the task at hand and get out of this room." She said, taking charge as Anatoli and Baurs nodded in agreeance. Looking over, Anatoli became curious at all the cloth covered objects.

"The heck are these things?" Anatoli said as he walked to one of the tarp covered objects.

"I wouldn't touch that. It's better we just find the exit door." Camilla said as she walked away with Baurs following her.

"Oh come on, how bad can it be? It's covered by a tarp, it's probably just some furnishing or something." Anatoli said as he grabbed and pulled the tarp off one of the objects, revealing what was underneath to be a statue of a man, with several additional extra arms, covered in molding clay. "What the hell!?" Anatoli shouted in shock.

"That's... Disturbing..." Camilla said as she looked at the statue with Anatoli and Baurs.

"It appears to be a sculpture of some kind." Baurs stated.

"I think you just found a piece of Claudias handiwork..." Camilla said as she got close to the sculpture. As she got closer, the statues eyes begun to lit up as a magic circle appeared underneath the feet of the statue as the arms of the statue begun to move. "Ahhh!" She screamed in shock as she and Anatoli jumped back at the sight of the statue begin to move.

As the statue begun to pace towards them, the other tarp covered objects revealed to be a myriad of other statues of human-like objects with multiple extra appendages sticking out of their bodies.

"Oh crap! Clay zombies!" Anatoli remarked as he hid behind Baurs large frame.

"Could you please not name them?!" Camilla replied back as she formed barriers over her fists as she struck a combat pose as the statues begun to approach.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 10:59 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

In another area of the base, another portal opened up from a vortex painting into a large room with multicolored red, green and yellow lighting that was dangling from the ceiling. Within the room, there was a myriad of vastly different and overly ornate clothing hanging from racks strung out everywhere within the room. Emerging from the portal was Pietro, landing on his feet as he looked on into the room.

"Hmmm..." Pietro mumbled as he looked around as he got out of the portal. _"A room filled with clothes..." _He thought with intrigue as to where he was.

"Waaaahhh!" A shrill scream exclaimed as Pietro turned around towards the portal and noticed that someone else was emerging from the vortex as Corvus and Vulp came out into the room, bouncing off the giant belly of Pietro and onto the ground as the portal disappeared. "Blegh…" Corvus mumbled as he and Vulp hit the ground.

"Are you both alright?" Pietro said as he bent over to look at the Celestial Spirits.

"Ugh... Better if I wasn't turned into paint and thrown through a portal to heaven knows where..." Corvus said, complaining as he and Vulp sat up.

"It would seem everyone has split up unannounced." Pietro said as he stood back up as Vulp begun to look around.

"That's definitely not a good thing for us. Without the kid around, we are good as toast." Corvus said as he begun to fly up and met Pietro at eye level.

"Then don't use your power, we will find Lil Bern soon." Pietro said calmly as he said to Corvus to reassure him before noticing Vulp had begun to sniff around and move around on the floor. "But it would seem someone is growing impatient..." He remarked as Vulp continued to search.

"Looks like Vulp wants to get back to the kids side as quickly as possible." Corvus said.

"The fox is rather attached to him, isn't he?" Pietro said as he looked at Vulp.

"Yeah, I guess so." Corvus said as he looked at Pietro.

"How about you?" Pietro asked.

"What? Me? Nah, I'm more of an acquaintance if anything..." Corvus said as he looked away from Pietros gaze.

"If you were just an acquaintance of his, you wouldn't be so willing to protect him. Or keep wearing the guild logo collars he had given you." Pietro said as he walked away, Corvus staring at him as the big man followed Vulp before looking down at the Psycho Circus collar around his neck.

_"...Me and Vulp are gonna have to leave the kid one day... But it doesn't mean it has to be soon..."_ Corvus thought with concern as he flew after Pietro and Vulp.

"Vulp, something the matter?" Pietro asked of Vulp as Vulp sniffed into some of the clothes on the racks with intrigue.

"Pretty sure he is just smelling the weird clothes." Corvus said casually as he perched himself on Pietros shoulder.

"But what for?" Pietro asked with curiosity.

"Beats me." Corvus said as he shrugged his wings. As Vulp continued to smell the clothes, he proceeded to stick his nose in the loose sleeve of a long overcoat on the rack. Suddenly, looking within the sleeve, a hand begun to jet out from the clothing as it reached forward towards Vulp as the fox jumped backwards on reflex towards Pietro and Corvus, stunned by the sudden act.

"What the heck?" Pietro said as he watched the coat sprout a hand as Corvus and Vulp looked on with wide eyes of surprise. Popping out more appendages, the coat begun to spawn a male with yellow and black hair slicked to the side and a regal party mask on his face with a smirk.

"Welcome to me and my sisters "Fashion Corner!"' Said the voice of Tazo as he jumped out of the rack, only sporting the long coat and his mask over his face.

From behind Pietro and the Celestial Spirits, Tiza, wearing a sequined green dress and her own mask that was attached to the rack, emerged proceeded to kick Pietro in the back with a heeled shoe, causing him to fall forward as Vulp and Corvus got up and away from where he fell.

"A den of beauty that adorns the bodies of males and females! Another form of "art" that was shown to us by our graceful master, Claudia Vanderheem!" Tiza exclaimed as she stood with her arms outreached, under the fanciful lights of the room.

"My word, do you leave the house dressed so plainly?" Tazo said with a smirk as he looked over Pietros casual attire.

"Surely you could use some better designs than that! Perhaps some mauve and teal pants?" Tiza said, giving a critique of Pietros sense of style.

"Adorned with a golden gem stag beetle headband with an ascot!" Tazo exclaimed as he got next to his sister.

"The hell are you two talking about!?" Corvus said with confusion and frustration as he begun to charge up electricity as Vulps fur begun to move to prepare for a fight.

"No don't!" Pietro said towards the Celestial Spirits as he quickly stood back up as Tazo and Tiza rushed into the clothing racks, disappearing once more.

"What?! Why?!" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked towards Pietro.

"Without Bernard around, you are limited on what you can do. Conserve your energy until you are back at his side... I'll handle this." Pietro explained as he pulled out his wrestling belt and placed it around his waist.

Charging up his magic, Pietro begun to glow an aura of power and his body started to shift in size. His clothing ripping and revealing his black singlet underneath, Pietro grew in size with a bulging giant mass of muscles on his body and displaying immense concentration.

"Whoa..." Corvus said as he saw Pietros large muscular physique.

"My! What a gaudy singlet! You look like a filthy wrestler!" Tizas voice exclaimed, hidden within the clothing racks.

"Get back, you two..." Pietro said as he walked forward. "I'll handle this..." He said with a serious tone.

"G-got it..." Corvus said with concern as he flew out of the way of the clothing racks with Vulp following him. _"The kids probably fine... He's probably with the big rock lizard or Camilla..."_ The crow thought as he got out of Pietros way.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 11:00 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The last portal opened on the ceiling that was attached to a vortex painting in a large white and brightly lit room that had no furnishings in it, covered in a variety of random paint all over the walls like the room was a blank canvas painting blotched with various colors. From the portal, out came out a large yellow ball with googly eyes on it that bounced on the ground as who came out next was Marlene.

"Whhaaa!" Marlene screamed as she landed on the ball chest first, comforting her landing. _"Ugh... Well, at least that was soft... Huh?!"_ She thought with relief before looking upward as she noticed another person was falling from the portal, moving out of the way on reflex as Bernard had emerged from the portal.

"Gaah!" Bernard exclaimed as he bounced off the ball and landed on his backside hard on the ground. "Oww!" He exclaimed as he clutched at his back as Marlene approached.

"Hey, you alright?!" Marlene said with worry as she looked over Bernard.

"No, I am not alright! That hurt like hell!" Bernard complained as he sat up to look Marlene in the eye as he continued to rub his back.

"You-you don't have to yell, you know." Marlene said with a stern look forming on her face as Bernard continued to rub his back.

"Sorry- Ow..." Bernard apologized until he still felt hurt from the his backside hitting the ground.

"Here, let me look, I have a salve for some wounds I made." Marlene said as she moved around towards Bernards backside as he lifted his shirt and showed her his back. Reaching into her utility belt, she pulled out a little vial with a greenish paste-like liquid and begun to lather it onto a reddish area of Bernard.

"Ahhh… Sweet relief..." Bernard said with a sigh as some of the pain went away.

"Better?" Marlene questioned.

"Much better. When did you get good at salves and potions and all that?" Bernard asked as he looked at her.

"I started learning when I was sixteen from reading books on crafting this stuff and I got some practice with some of the mushrooms and leaves around the mountains near Hemlock. Figured it be useful in case anyone got hurt at the guild doing a job or a performance." Marlene said as she helped pull Bernard up from the ground.

"I can understand the jobs but the performances are something completely different, I never would have asked anyone to do something I know they couldn't do and get injured." Bernard said as he looked at her.

"Yeah but it's something useful nonetheless. Especially after you left the first time and everything was up to us to try and come up with ideas for acts." Marlene replied. "Some tried things we honestly shouldn't have attempted like Harriet tried to do pull-ups with her magic beard but it nearly broke and she fell hard on her back." She said with a smirk.

"Pfff! I would have loved to see that! Hahaha!" Bernard laughed in response.

"Course, it's nowhere near as bad as the times Anatoli tried to do tightrope walks without his ball." Marlene said as she and Bernard looked at Anatolis googly eyed ball.

"Hehehe. Would have loved to see that too." Bernard said as he continued to chuckle.

"Sometimes I can't tell if you are laughing because it's actually funny or you just like seeing us get hurt." Marlene said with a wry smile as Bernard scratched his face in minor embarrassment.

"Sorry, my bad... Still working on that after the whole mess at that training day." Bernard said.

"Well, I can't say I am not impressed at how far you took this whole thing." Marlene said with an impressed expression.

"Oh come on, not you too..." Bernard said as he put his hand on his forehead to Marlenes surprise. "Why is everyone constantly giving me that look for doing this?" He said with a complaintive tone.

"Why shouldn't we be impressed? You're taking charge to fix a problem that you felt you were capable of stopping, it takes guts for that kind of thing. It's pretty cool honestly." Marlene said with an earnest smile.

"...It's really not that big of a deal." Bernard said, trying to ignore the compliment. _"Camilla said Marlene always respected me... Never really noticed it till now..."_ He thought as he looked at her with a modicum of concern. "Hey, mind if I asked you something? Are you alright?" Bernard asked to Marlenes confusion.

"Huh? Yeah, I am fine. Why?" Marlene replied.

"Well, I noticed you were giving me and Camilla some odd looks the past couple of days. Figured I may as well ask..." Bernard asked with a tone of concern.

"Oh... That... It's..." Marlene said with a minor blush as she scratched the back of her head. "It's... Well... A bit of a hard conversation to talk about with you and her..." She said as she glossed her eyes around.

_"Hard to talk about with me and Camilla? What's that supposed to mean?"_ Bernard thought with a raised eyebrow. "Maybe this isn't the right time, sorry about that." He said aloud.

"Yeah, we can talk about it later." Marlene said as she locked eyes with Bernard.

"We gotta get back on track and that's finding the others." Bernard said with a serious look as he and Marlene looked around the bright paint stained room.

"Right. But first, where are we?" Marlene questioned as she and Bernard looked along the wall for an exit.

"It's a room for our struggling new recruits..." Said a third voice that was familiar to Bernard and Marlene as they both looked over at the other side of the room as they saw that they weren't alone in the room.

Leaning against the wall, wearing only white pants with purple suspenders with no shirt or shoes to hide his immense amounts of tattoos was Dolph with a calm smile on his face as he looked over at Marlene.

"You..." Marlene said with an offended expression on her face.

"Great... This douchebag..." Bernard said with an angry expression.

"Takes one to know one." Dolph said towards Bernard as Bernards eye twitched in response before giving a soft look towards Marlene.

"Sorry for the hard reveal of my affiliation, I thought we were going to talk once again after the matter of the infant would be handled." Dolph said with a smile towards Marlene who just gave him a harsh look of disgust.

"Don't act sweet with me... Pretending to be a waiter when all you are is a scumbag with a bunch of tattoos." Marlene said, slinging insults.

"Oh come on, baby... Don't be cruel. I can still see through those eyes of yours." Dolph said with a confident and cocky attitude as he walked forward until Bernard stood in front of Marlene, as if to keep her away from Dolph.

"Stay away from her, you walking ink blot." Bernard said threateningly.

"Are you going to stop me? And just how are you going to do that?" Dolph said with a smirk as Bernards eyes widened.

"What does that mean?" Marlene said behind Bernard.

_"...Damn it..."_ Bernard thought as he came to a dark realization. "...Formosa is outside breaking up the lower tier grunts and the others were outside of me when we got separated..." He said as he started to move backwards some steps with Marlene.

"...Oh no... You don't have any helpers..." Marlene said as she came to a realization of what Bernard meant.

"... Not an appropriate joke but did you suddenly gain combat skills in the time between we separated...?" Bernard asked as he looked at Marlene.

"Not really..." Marlene said as she looked at Dolph with the same smug look on his face.

"Well then, let's have some fun. Tattoo Magic: Viper Party!" Dolph exclaimed as a magic circle formed beneath his feet as his snake tattoos started to come to life from off his body and slithered off onto the floor.

_"...Shit..."_ Bernard thought as he and Marlene stepped backwards to make space away from Dolph and his tattoo snakes.

* * *

**Separation anxiety, I hear, is a terrible thing but in the case of the Psycho Circus wizards, it's more than harmful. Divided into groups within the base of the dark guild, Pazuzu's Easel, the Psycho Circus wizards are trapped in nightmares of the dark guilds machinations. While Camilla, Anatoli and Baurs face against zombified living statues of prior victims of Claudia Vanderheem, Pietro protects the Celestial Spirits in a battle with the sibling duo of Tazo and Tiza. But what of Marlene and Bernard, who have to deal with a tattooed magical deviant in the form of Dolph? Can they handle the situation of his magical ink on their own with none of Bernards beasts to help? Find out next time on Menagerie! **


	39. Chapter 39

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 11:06 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Go and play!" Dolph exclaimed as he pointed his finger in the direction of Bernard and Marlene. Upon his instructions, the tattoo snakes begun to slither towards the pair with intent to kill as they looked at the snakes with blue faces of fear.

"Crap! Marlene, use your magic!" Bernard said as he turned his head towards her.

"What about you?!" Marlene replied back.

"I'll think of something! Just do it!" Bernard exclaimed as Marlene quickly nodded and turned invisible, escaping the snakes line of sight as they turned their attention towards Bernard, who was swallowing spit in nervousness. _"Now what do I do?!"_ He thought, struggling with forming an idea as he looked around the room.

The brightly lit room covered in paint stains had no objects for him to defend himself as Dolph looked at Bernards nervous state with a smirk at his inability to do anything for protection. Stepping back as the snakes approached further and further, Bernard glanced over at Anatolis ball and formed an idea.

_"Only thing I can think of, sorry Anatoli!" _Bernard thought as he rushed towards the giant ball and picked it up. Turning back around while holding the massive ball in his hands, Bernard noticed some of the snakes jump up towards him with their mouths open to bite him. "Piss off!" He shouted as he swung Anatolis ball like a weapon, swatting the snakes that lunged at him as they hit the wall and turning into paint stains.

"Pfff! Hahaha!" Dolph laughed as he watched Bernard flail about to avoid getting hurt.

"And what's so funny?!" Bernard said angrily towards Dolph as he started to slam the ball against some of the snakes on the ground, turning them into more stains of paint.

"Can't you tell?" Dolph said as he pointed at some of the paint stains on the wall from Bernards slamming. Catching Bernards attention, Bernard noticed some of the paint from the smashed snakes were beginning to return back to Dolphs body and reforming the original tattoos that were on him.

"...What the hell...?" Bernard said with a tone of surprise and exhaustion.

"Tattoo Magic." Dolph said as Bernard looked at him as he reached his hand behind his backside and pulled out a knife made of ink. "Using magical ink I had made with my master Claudia, I am covered in tons of weapons and creatures at my disposal made from the fluid!" He said as he threw the knife in Bernards direction.

Throwing Anatolis ball up into the air to avoid it getting stabbed, Bernard ducked out of the way of the knife as it became imbedded in the wall as Bernard caught Anatolis ball as it came down. Upon looking back at the knife, Bernard dropped the ball and quickly rushed to grab the knife, grabbing it by the handle and ripping it out of the drywall.

"Not so fast..." Dolph said with an evil smirk as he snapped his fingers.

"Huh?" Bernard muttered as he held the knife until he looked down and noticed that the knife was beginning to melt. "Oh come on! That isn't what happened yesterday!" He complained as the knife in his hands turned into a sticky mess of ink.

"Did you really think I would let you hold one of my ink weapons to fight back with?" Dolph said, mocking Bernard as he quickly rushed back towards Anatolis ball.

_"This isn't good... This isn't good... I got nothing to fight back with..." _Bernard thought with a drop of sweat dripping off his face as he was unsure of what to do. _"I've not been in a situation like this in a long time... I don't know what to do here- Oh?"_ He continued to think until he noticed something behind Dolph, who was still mocking Bernard.

Unbeknownst to Dolph was Marlene, who was partially invisible, behind the tattooed man as she motioned for Bernard to keep quiet as she reached into her utility belt and grabbed a vial with a dark blue liquid inside it. Upon seeing her, Bernard made an expression of seriousness as he turned his attention back to Dolph.

_"Need to distract him..."_ Bernard thought as he looked at Dolph. "Th-that all you got!?" Bernard exclaimed in an attempt to incite Dolph.

"Oh? So you want a new plaything? I'll show you something real special then. Hehehe." Dolph said as he turned around, showing Bernard his back tattoo that looked like that of a large man-like lizard as Marlene, noticing his body shifting, quickly turned back invisible so he wouldn't notice her.

_"Damn it! He almost saw me!"_ Marlene thought with worry as she stopped moving for a bit as Dolphs back tattoo begun to glow.

"Tattoo Magic: Lizardman!" Dolph exclaimed as the tattoo on his back started to come to life and out came a humanoid-looking creature. It sported a long gator-like head and a green colored body that had minor muscle and a pair of black ripped shorts on its lower half and a reptilian tail.

"A Lizardman?! Seriously?!" Bernard exclaimed in surprise as he hid slightly behind Anatolis ball as the tattoo Lizardman ran at him. In response to the creature approaching, Bernard picked up Anatolis ball and threw it at the Lizardman in an attempt to stop it but to no avail as the lizard man smacked the ball out of the way as it hit the wall. Changing its attention back to Bernard, Bernard started to run away to the other side of the room.

"Craaaappp!" Bernard exclaimed in fear as the Lizardman started to chase him around the painted stained room with Dolph chuckling and laughing as Bernard made a fool of himself.

"Bahahahaha! You're such a dork!" Dolph said as he continued to bully Bernard. Still unknown to him however was Marlene, who was approaching him with a vial of fluid in her hand with it raised overhead to slam it into him.

_"Got you now!" _Marlene thought as she prepared to slam the vial into him. As she lowered her right arm for the attack, her wrist was quickly caught by Dolph as he turned back around and noticed her presence behind him, his face forming a content smile as he noticed the chameleon-like girl, turning back to a visible state.

"Was wondering where you went." Dolph said with a cool look in his eyes as he had a tight grip on Marlenes wrist as she locked eyes with the tattooed man.

"Let go! Get off me!" Marlene screamed in a defiant tone as she tried to get out of his clutches.

"Calm down, I mean you no harm." Dolph said with a reassuring tone towards Marlene as she just looked at the tattooed wizard with disdain.

"Ahhh!" Bernard screamed as Marlene and Dolph turned their attention back to Bernard who was dodging swipes from the Lizardman tattoo as Bernard fell over onto his chest after dodging another swing. Trying to run away again, Bernards left leg was caught by the Lizardmans right left hand as it grabbed Bernard and threw him against the wall.

"Gfagh!" Bernard grunted in pain as he hit the wall, clutching his backside as he fell on the ground. Looming over, the Lizardman then proceeded to raise its leg and kick Bernard in the chest while he was down. "Blragh!" He exclaimed in more pain from the impact.

"Stop it! Leave him alone!" Marlene said as she continued to struggle in Dolphs hold on her.

"And I said calm down!" Dolph said in a slightly more agitated tone as he grabbed her by both arms and locked eyes with her. "Listen to me, I want you..." He said with a serious tone towards Marlene who was just looking at him with confusion.

"Wha-what?!" Marlene exclaimed with surprise.

"I could tell by the lonely look in your eyes yesterday that you want someone in your life. Someone who will treat you right and will give you what you really want." Dolph said in an overbearing tone.

"And just what do I really want?" Marlene said in response with a furrowed brow.

"A man to love." Dolph said with serious eyes as he looked at Marlene who made a confused and surprised expression.

"Huh?" Marlene mumbled with a blush on her face as she didn't know what to say in response.

"I wanted to talk to you yesterday because I see the true value in your beauty. I feel like there's something that could exist between us, something magical and real!" Dolph said as he gripped tighter and tighter against Marlenes arms.

"And in this little fantasy of yours, were you ever going to tell me you were a henchmen to a crazed lunatic of a painter?" Marlene said with an angry expression.

"Claudia has nothing to do with this! This just between me and you and what we could have together..." Dolph said as loomed over Marlene who was becoming more and more perplexed by what he was saying.

As they stood together, Marlene glanced over at Bernard who was now being stepped on by the tattooed Lizardman, its clawed foot pressing down on his backside.

"Shut... Up..." Bernard muttered in pain as he looked over at the pair, Dolph turning his head towards Bernard in response.

"Got something else to say?" Dolph said in an annoyed tone as he continued to clutch Marlene.

"I said shut up!" Bernard screamed while still feeling the foot applying pressure on his back. "You don't know crap about her so stop spewing your dumb fetish garbage at her, you walking paint bucket!" He shouted.

"Funny, coming from a guy whose spine is on the verge of being as bad as his heart is." Dolph said in a mocking tone.

"Double funny, coming from the lizard lover!" Bernard said with a smirk as Dolph and Marlenes eyes widened in surprise from his statement.

"What did you just say?!" Dolph said, finally showing a truly agitated state of emotion. "Do not call her a "lizard!"' He exclaimed in frustration.

"And why not? Because I have you pegged?!" Bernard said as the Lizardman tattoo lifted Bernard up and held him by his shirt against the wall, slightly above the ground.

_"What does that mean?"_ Marlene thought as she looked at Dolph and then back to Bernard.

"The snakes, the lizardman, why you like Marlene... You have a fetish for reptiles! That's the only reason you have any interest in her!" Bernard said as he continued to be choked by the Lizardman.

"Do-don't be ridiculous! I fell for this girl for her impeccable beauty and her amazing teeth and skin and-" Dolph said as he looked at Bernard and listed off his infatuation before stopping himself as he realized what he just muttered. As he did this, Marlenes expression went from one of confusion to one of sheer anger as she realized what Dolphs reason for liking her was.

"My teeth... And skin..." Marlene said with a smirk of pure aggravation forming as Dolph turned to look at her.

"Wait, I didn't mean that, my reptilian angel- I mean, my beautiful angel! Sorry, that just slipped out!" Dolph said, stumbling over his words as Marlene, still holding the blue vial in her hand from before, lifted it up overhead like before she was grabbed by the tattooed man.

"I am not a stupid reptile!" Marlene said in a defiant and angry tone as she slammed the vial in Dolphs face.

"Gaaahhh!" Dolph screamed in pain as the blue fluid begun to burn and singe his face. Clutching at his face, he begun to feel a searing sensation that start to make him feel like his face was melting as the multitude of tattoos around his face and eyes begun to melt and smear. "What the hell!? You stupid bitch!" He exclaimed in his pain as he looked in Marlenes direction but noticed she had disappeared.

While in his state of pain, Marlene took an empty glass jar that was on her belt and smashed it over the back of his head, the glass shattering in the process into tiny shards as Dolph clutched at the back of his head in pain. Stumbling from the melting sensation on his face and the pain from the glass to the back of his skull, he stepped forward and wound up stepping on the broken shards of glass as they entered into his bare foot.

"Blaaaahhh!" Dolph exclaimed in pain as he clutched at his foot as he fell over onto his back. Looking up, Marlene stood over him with an angry expression on her face as she reached into her belt once more and pulled out a cloth and a test tube that was filled with a yellow paste. Pouring it onto the cloth, she then placed the cloth over Dolphs mouth and nose as he flailed on the ground as Marlene begun to choke him.

Struggling for air as he inhaled the scent from the paste, Dolphs consciousness begun to fade as his eyes started to roll into the back of his head. His head hitting the floor and his body going limp, the Lizardman tattoo choking Bernard begun to melt and disappear as it was dispelled, leaving behind a green ink-like substance on the ground as Bernard fell on his butt to the floor. Noticing Bernard hit the floor, Marlene quickly rushed over to him to check on him.

"Bernard, are you okay?" Marlene said as she kneeled down and checked on Bernard.

"I.. Am... Tired..." Bernard said with an exhausted tone as he clutched at his midsection.

"Hold on, let me see." Marlene said as she slightly lifted his shirt, looking at the bruises he had sustained.

"...You glad I didn't yell this time?" Bernard said as he clutched his head.

"What? Oh, yeah, it's okay. I didn't care earlier anyway." Marlene said as she quickly reached into her belt to pull out the ointment she had used on him before and begun to rub it on his wounds.

"...Hey..." Bernard said as he looked at Marlene.

"What? Now isn't the time for you to be talking, let me-" Marlene said before she was cut off by Bernard grabbing her by the wrist, stopping her from continuing.

"Are you okay?" Bernard said with a tired tone.

"...It's... Not important..." Marlene said with a disgruntled tone.

"It is to me..." Bernard said with serious eyes as Marlene noticed the seriousness of his comment before sighing.

"...The past few days I've been bothered by something..." Marlene said as Bernard listening. "Camilla has always been trying to help me find a boyfriend for the past couple of years. More often than not, me and her spend time together and go shopping or to restaurants and guys come hit on her and don't take notice of me or get put off by the way I look." She explained.

_"...So that's it..."_ Bernard thought as he looked at the chameleon-like girls melancholic expression as she went back to tending Bernards injuries.

"You come back and you wound up becoming her boyfriend... You don't know how jealous I really am of that..." Marlene said, revealing her feelings.

"Are you jealous that Camilla has a boyfriend or jealous that I am dating her?... Or both?" Bernard questioned.

"Huh?" Marlene exclaimed in surprise.

"Oh come on, you know I was going to ask that." Bernard said as he looked at Marlene who was beginning to blush in response.

"Well... That's uhhh…" Marlene mumbled with a red face as she didn't how to answer.

"You hung around me all the time when we were kids, it's not like I had amazing charisma when I was a child unless you liked me..." Bernard said in a tired tone as Marlene locked eyes with him.

"...Okay fine, I can admit to it..." Marlene said with a sigh. "I did... kinda… sorta.. had a little bit of a crush on you when we were kids..." She said with a red face as she twiddled her fingers in embarrassment.

"...Okay..." Bernard said bluntly.

"...That's it? No comments or anything?" Marlene said with surprise.

"Camilla was a bit more secretive about it, you were always kinda obvious..." Bernard said casually as Marlene made a defeated expression and slumped her shoulders.

_"...Great, my childhood crush always knew I had a thing for him... Can I just die now?"_ Marlene thought with embarrassment as Marlene finished applying the bandages to Bernards chest.

"But you know..." Bernard said as he sat up, getting closer to Marlene. "I always did think you were cute when we were kids." He said with an honest tone as Marlenes eyes widened in surprise.

"Yeah, when I was a kid and could hide my fangs and skin blotches as a "child thing." Hehehe..." Marlene said.

"As a grown woman, I think you have your own charms to you. I mean it..." Bernard said as Marlene looked at Bernard.

"...You... You really mean that?" Marlene said in surprise.

"You're one of my best friends... Would I lie?" Bernard said with a smile.

"Yes." Marlene replied as Bernard was surprised.

"Hey!" Bernard shouted in anger as Marlene begun to chuckle.

"...Thanks... I kinda needed that..." Marlene said with some of her spirits uplifted.

"It's not a big deal... Just help me stand up, will you?" Bernard said as Marlene nodded and helped lift him up to his feet. As Bernard stood up, Marlene quickly stretched her arms out and begun to hug Bernard with a happy look on her face as Bernard, unenthusiastically reaching his arms around her to hug her back, was surprised by the gesture.

"I really hope you stay in the guild after this whole punishment thing is over." Marlene said with an honest tone.

"So I could become the guild master, I get it..." Bernard said as he rolled his eyes, expecting that to be her reason.

"No... Not like that. I want you to stay in the guild because you're my friend and I like the fact you are around." Marlene said with a smile towards Bernard. "As a bonus, it's also nice to know a guy who likes me for me is around too..." She continued.

"Oh come on, you'll find a guy one day. If not, there's always Anatoli." Bernard said as he lightly pushed off Marlene.

Suddenly, there was dead silence as Bernard realized what he just said. As they stared at eachother, the duos cheeks begun to swell up and smirks begun to form as Bernard and Marlene burst into tears laughing hysterically.

"Bahahaha! Anatoli!" Marlene exclaimed loudly as she continued to chuckle.

"Pffff! Hahaha- Ow!" Bernard continued to laugh until he clutched at his ribs from the injuries.

"Hey! Stop laughing- Hahaha! you're gonna reopen your wounds- Bahaha!" Marlene said as she tried to stop Bernard from laughing whilst still giggling herself.

"You're right, sorry. Hehehe." Bernard said as he wiped a tear from his face.

"That guy is hopeless." Marlene joked as she stopped laughing.

"How mad is he going to be that I did that to his ball?" Bernard said as he pointed at Anatolis ball, smeared with tattoo ink from all the snakes he crushed while using it as a weapon.

"Hold on, I got a wipe, lets just clean it off real quick." Marlene said as she pulled out another cloth and handed it to Bernard.

"...What about him?" Bernard said as he glanced at the unconscious Dolph.

"...Forget him, the salve I stuck in his mouth will keep him unconscious for hours, long enough for us to rescue the baby." Marlene said with folded arms as she stared at Dolph before sticking out her forked tongue at his lethargic body in a sign of disgust.

"What was that stuff made of?" Bernard asked.

"Partially toxic fungal mushrooms I found." Marlene said with a smirk.

"...How devilishly evil... Hehehe." Bernard said with a moderately impressed expression.

"I learned from the best." Marlene said as she pointed at Bernard.

"Sorry, I'm taken. Hehehe." Bernard joked back.

"My bad, hehehehe." Marlene replied with an honest smile.

"Come on, lets wipe the stupid ball off and then get out of this room." Bernard said as he pointed at the door to the painted room.

"Hope everyone else is alright..." Marlene said with a moderately worried expression.

"Come on, it's Camilla, Anatoli, Pietro and the others. How rough could they possibly have had it compared to us?" Bernard said as he walked over to Anatolis ball.

* * *

**Frrriiiieeennndsss~ Dolph thought he had the upper hand with Bernard and Marlene not have any sort of individual combat skills between the two of them but the reveal of his reasons for being infatuated with Marlene ultimately became his undoing as Bernard and Marlene had defeated one of the Pazuzu's Easels top members through sheer luck and their skills; Marlenes talent for potions and salves and Bernards innate ability to shout and bark at people. But that's only one opponent down, what of the others? Find out next time on Menagerie! **


	40. Chapter 40

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 11:14 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Anatoli screamed as he kept flailing his arms as he struggled to channel his Wind Magic as he stood next to Camilla and Baurs.

"Calm down already Anatoli!" Camilla complained as she continued to put up barriers with her magic as the wax covered husks of former humans turned into gray sculptures approached them. _"His freaking out is not helping right now!" _ She thought as she stepped backwards with Anatoli and Baurs from the oncoming zombified creatures.

"Ms. Camilla, why are you not trying to destroy them?" Baurs asked as she looked around at the various creatures poking and prodding against the walls of Camillas barriers.

"I don't think it's a good idea..." Camilla said with a serious expression as Anatoli continued to flail his arms in an attempt to generate energy in the air.

"Why not?!" Anatoli complained as he continued to shake his arms around.

"Dead bodies or not, I'm not comfortable with crushing these things if there's dead corpses inside them!" Camilla said as she turned her head towards Anatoli. "And will you stop fooling around and just use your magic!" She said as she got close to Anatoli.

"I'm trying! It's not easy without my ball!" Anatoli replied angrily.

"Don't give me that bull! You can perform magic without it!" Camilla screamed in response.

"Stop yelling at me! It's not helping!" Anatoli shouted.

"What you're doing right now isn't helpful either!" Camilla said in frustration.

"Enough!" Baurs exclaimed loudly as she jumped up to stand on her hind legs, looming over Camilla and Anatoli to catch their attention before landing back on all fours. "Mr. Anatoli, sit on my head." She suggested as Anatoli looked at her confused.

"Why the hell would I do that?" Anatoli replied in confusion.

"Please, just do it." Baurs said with a serious tone as Camilla turned around and noticed something bad was occurring.

As the sculpture zombies continued to press and crowd around the barriers protecting the trio, the walls to Camillas shielding were beginning to crack as they continued to squish their mangled malformed bodies against the barriers. As she noticed, Camilla made a grim expression as her eyes widened.

_"Oh no, I built those barriers with a low amount of power to converse my energy and their starting to push through quicker than I thought!" _Camilla thought nervously as she turned back towards Anatoli. "Sit on the giant lizard." Camilla said.

"What do you-" Anatoli said with surprise.

"Just sit on the damn lizard thing!" Camilla shouted as Anatoli jumped back in surprise. After hearing her shouting, Anatoli quickly moved over to where Baurs was as she bent forward to give him room to jump onto her head as he shifted and sat cross-legged on top of Baurs head.

Rolling her body forward and grabbing her tail between her legs, Baurs turned herself into a round shape to simulate the experience of a ball-like structure to assist Anatoli as he sat on her newly circular shape.

"Pretend I am the ball and use me to channel a bit of your energy." Baurs said as she stood completely still in a rolled up form as Anatoli sat on her like he normally would his ball as Camilla turned back as she noticed the sculpture zombies were beginning to slam their arms against the barrier, causing them to crack further and further until they were just about to shatter.

"Come on Anatoli!" Camilla said as she put her hands up with her fists in barrier spheres.

As he meditated on the ball, blades of wind begun to spun around his body as he concentrated his Wind Magic.

_"...Form gusts, form a tornado, form something!"_ Anatoli thought to himself as he struggled to maintain his winds as he sat on Baurs, trying to mentally maintain the idea of using her as a substitute for his ball.

Suddenly, a shattering noise was heard as the zombies begun to storm them the group as Camilla placed her hands up to prepare to be swarmed.

"Camilla, get down!" Anatoli exclaimed as Camilla, turned around and ducked out of the way as a tornado formed around Anatoli. Stretching out his arms, the tornado around his body spread outward and slammed into the zombies, sending them flying into the walls.

Upon impact with various ends of the room, the zombified sculptures begun to break into various small pieces along the floor.

"Hey!... I... Did it..." Anatoli said between breathes as he sighed with tiredness from his struggle to use his magic as Camilla started to stand back up.

"About time too..." Camilla said as she looked around at the remains of the sculptures.

"Were there any bodies inside?" Baurs inquired as Anatoli got off her head and unfurled herself.

"...Let me see..." Camilla said with an anxious tone as she moved towards a sculpture torso with a hole where the head would be. Bending over it to the look inside, Camilla looked around and noticed a lack of organs, bones or flesh within. "Okay... Good... Thought I was gonna puke..." She said with a tone of relief as she backed away from the broken sculptures.

"Nothing?" Anatoli asked.

"Nothing. And a good thing too." Camilla said as she lightly kicked a sculpture zombie head as it rolled to the side.

"Why do you suppose that is?" Baurs questioned.

"...Oh I got one!" Anatoli asked.

_"...And here comes a dumb comment..."_ Camilla thought as she rolled her eyes.

"They must have removed the bodies from the inside of the sculptures so that way the sculptures wouldn't have a corpse stench!" Anatoli said with a smile as he gave his thoughts as Baurs and Camilla made surprised expressions toward him.

"That... Actually makes a modicum of sense..." Camilla said with surprise.

"I agree. Good work, Mr. Anatoli." Baurs said casually, giving Anatoli a compliment.

"Oh yeah! Saved the girls and getting the questions right, I am on a roll today!" Anatoli said with his arms up in an expression of glee.

"Also says the guy who was completely useless without his ball for most of the situation. Hehe." Camilla joked as Anatoli slumped his head in defeat.

"Whatever! Lets just get out of here and find my ball!" Anatoli said as he stomped away angrily towards the exit to the room.

"Yeah, hopefully the others are alright too." Camilla said as she and Baurs followed behind Anatoli.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 11:19 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Standing between the racks of clothes was Pietro, his bulging muscle form active and dressed in his singlet, waiting patiently for the siblings to reappear. Standing out of the field of clothes was Corvus and Vulp, trying to be on the lookout for Tazo and Tiza.

"We still don't see them!" Corvus said loudly.

"Don't worry about finding them, just leave it to me." Pietro said as he waited for them to appear.

Suddenly, out from the racks was Tiza, dressed in another bright and colorful outfit as she jumped up and dropkicked Pietro in the back of the skull, causing him to fall forward onto his knees.

"Guh!" Pietro grunted as he fell to his knees. Quickly turning around, Pietro attempted to cock back his arm for a punch until he noticed Tiza ran back into the clothing racks and disappearing once more. "Damn it..." He said as he noticed he lost his opportunity for a strike.

"It's wrong to try and hit a girl, old man!" Said the voice of Tazo as he emerged from the clothing racks, once again in an altered outfit, while holding a knife as he swung at Pietros backside, the buff strongman turning around in the nick of time to catch Tazos swing and pivot out of the way.

Continuing to swing at Pietro, Tazo wildly laughed with a mad smile as the big man attempted to dodge but only managed to duck out of the way of a few swings as a few cuts were made into Pietros arms, chest and legs from the swipes Tazo made at him.

"Grrr…" Pietro grumbled as he held at the areas of where he was sliced up. Behind him, Tiza jumped out of the clothing with a glove that had blades on the finger tips and had scratched at Pietros backside. "Ahhh!" He exclaimed in pain.

"Bahahaha!" Tazo laughed maniacally. "Talk about a fun time, isn't it sister?!" He said with a crazed tone as he spun around.

"Indeed brother! Bad fashion sense or not!" Tiza said with a joyous tone, enjoying the damage she and her brother were causing.

"Damn it! We can't just sit around here this whole time as the old baldy just gets his butt kicked!" Corvus exclaimed in frustration as Vulp looked at the crow Celestial Spirit. "We have to do something!" The crow exclaimed angrily as he flapped his wings up to enter the fray.

Suddenly, however, a pair of furry blue and gray hands emerged to stop Corvus in the air before he could assist Pietro. Looking back to see where they came from, Corvus saw Vulp with a serious expression in his eyes as he wanted the crow to not enter.

"The hell is your problem?!" Corvus exclaimed angrily as he looked at Vulp as the fox proceeded to turn his head back to watch Pietro, still struggling to fight back against the siblings. As Pietro managed to block a brass knuckle padded fist strike from Tazo with his massive muscles defending himself, Tiza proceeded to stab him in the calf area of his left leg with a knife.

"Gurh!" Pietro exclaimed as he took a knee once again as the cuts on his body leaked out droplets of blood onto the ground. _"Times like this... I wish I was fifteen years younger..." _He thought as he looked up at the pair, standing over him, dressed in matching frilly green and purple outfits. "Your... Magic...?"

"The old man wants to know our magic sister? Shall we oblige? Hehehe." Tazo laughed in a posh tone.

"May as well, given his final moments for his long life are about to end! Listen up baldy, our magic is called "Fashionista Magic!" Tiza said as she bent to look in Pietros eyes.

"Our magic allows us to teleport in and out of clothing and slip into it like it was our own!" Tazo said as he danced around as he got behind Pietro.

"And some of the clothes in this room have different weapons hidden in each pocket for us to play around with!" Tiza said as she flashed her knife in front of Pietros face.

_"Magic so simple and used so effectively..."_ Pietro thought while he heavily breathed from his wounds.

Reaching down with his knife behind him to stab Pietro and end his life, Tazo looked down and noticed the buttons of Pietros wrestling belt. Forming a smirk, the fashionably dressed maniac made a deliciously evil thought in his head as he reached downward towards the belts buttons and removed it from the strongman.

"What the?" Pietro exclaimed as his muscles proceeded to shrink and his normally round shape returned. Looking behind, he noticed Tazo had picked up his belt and proceeded to spin around, dancing with it. "What are you doing!?" Pietro exclaimed in anger as Tiza grabbed his face with her hand and proceeded to point her dagger in the large man's face.

"Eyes on me, old timer. Hehehe." Tiza said with a smirk as Pietro felt part of the knife on his face.

"Such a lovely belt despite the clown face on it! Perhaps a change of color and some alterations to the crests on the side of it and it will shine as the most beautiful belt in the world!" Tazo said jokingly.

"Don't let him put on the belt..." Pietro said with a serious tone as he stared at the young woman.

"Oh be quiet." Tiza said with a smirk as she looked behind him to watch her brother fool around.

"Oooohh I must see how well this fits!" Tazo said as he proceeded to button Pietros belt and placed it around his waist.

"It looks perfect on you brother! Maybe just adjust the- Ahhh!" Tiza said until she screamed in sudden shock as she dropped her knife in fearful surprise.

"I told you..." Pietro said tiredly as he turned around to look at what Tiza fearfully exclaimed at.

Tazo's body started to grow exponentially in size. Much like Pietro, his bodies muscles were beginning to morph and increase to a massive size as the muscles in his neck, arms, legs, chest and back started to cause him to become malformed as his clothes ripped and his veins begun to pop.

"Whoa!?" Corvus said as he and Vulp watched the male fashion wizard become more and more of a disgusting mass of muscles.

"Brother!" Tiza said as she quickly rushed to her brothers side as she tried to stop his muscles and body from continually expanding to the point that it looked like he was going to explode. Standing up from his pained state, Pietro walked over to the duo and then went behind the massive pile of muscles. Reaching into the area where Tazos back would be, Pietro pulled out his belt from the giant writhing pile of flesh.

"Gaaahh!" Tazo screamed with tears in his eyes as he felt like he could finally breathe from his body returning to normal. Struggling to breath, Tazo fell to the floor and he and his sister held eachother in worry over one another.

"Oh thank goodness!" Tiza said as she embraced her brother.

"That was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me!" Tazo screamed with a frightened tone.

"Are you sure about that?" Pietro said as he put his belt back on, his body returning to his maximum muscle state as the siblings looked over. "Max Muscle Strike!" The strongman shouted as he cocked back his arms and proceeded to double strike the siblings in their faces, sending them flying into the clothing racks as the clothing fell over the place onto the two as their eyes swirled in their knocked out states on the ground.

"Damn..." Corvus said with wide eyes as he and Vulp moved to where Pietro was as he removed his belt from his waist and laid it on his shoulder, sighing in an exhausted tone.

"Sometimes I wish I wasn't so old..." Pietro said as he looked over at the Celestial Spirits.

"Wha-what happened there? When the guy put your belt on?" Corvus asked as he perched on a clothing rack that was still upright.

"...Max Muscle Magic is a simple magic frankly... It allows the user to be able to have their muscles and body mass expand in a way different than Titan Magic. It can be a great and powerful magic to those who fight hand to hand like me... But there is one thing about the magic that makes it incredibly dangerous as well." Pietro explained as he looked at his belt.

"What's that?" Corvus questioned.

"It only works on those with full and complete control of their muscles already." Pietro said as he looked at the spirits. "Despite my age, there was a time I was considered one of the most athletically fit men in Fiore, before I joined Psycho Circus and before I became a wizard. I learned how to increase my physical strength to the best I could and learned how to master this magic that's contained in this belt." Pietro said as he showed them the belt.

"So this belt will continue to make peoples bodies expand from it increasing their muscles unless the person wearing it is in tip top form?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.

"In a sense, yes. If I were to put this on one of the kids, they would probably expand to the point they would pop like a balloon. If I didn't intervene like I just did on the trendy boy, he would have become an "art piece of blood, guts and bones" all over the walls here." Pietro said.

"Happy that didn't happen..." Corvus said with a disturbed shrug as he and Vulp looked over at the doorway out of the room. "What should we do about them?" The crow said as he pointed his wing towards the unconscious Tiza and Tazo.

"Leave 'em for now. They won't be able to do anything in their current state." Pietro said as he walked over to the door and opened it. Leaving the room with Corvus and Vulp behind him, Pietro walked into a barren dust ridden hallway, turning his head to look around for any more Pazuzu's Easel members. "Coast looks clear." He said.

"Good to hear. Any idea what floor we are at?" Corvus wondered as he flapped around with Corvus sniffing around for Bernards scent.

"Not sure. But if we follow the fox, we might just have luck with finding the others." Pietro said as he started to follow Vulp with Corvus following behind the strongman.

"Here's a question... When you were first starting out, did you ever turn into a mass of muscles like that?" Corvus asked.

"A few times... Each more painful than the last until I finally learned it." Pietro said as he followed Vulp as they reached a stairwell. "Up or down?" He asked towards Vulp as the fox Celestial Spirit pointed his paw upwards.

"Looks like it's up. Hold on, let me check and see if there's anything ahead." Corvus said as he flew up the center of the stairwell. _"Really hope there isn't anything ahead..."_ The crow thought as he continued higher and higher by several floors until suddenly, the crow bounced his face against a pair of soft mounds. "Whoahoho!?" Corvus said as he felt something soft against both of his cheeks.

Marlene, looking down at Corvus between her breasts with surprise, made a face of surprise as Bernard looked over, holding Anatolis ball, as Vulp and Pietro went up the stairs and made eye contact with the pair.

"Humina humina… Hehehe." Corvus said as he made a lustful expression as he was between Marlenes boobs.

"Normally, I'd probably hit you for this... But I'm glad to see you too." Marlene said with a soft expression.

"Lucky crow, aren't cha?" Bernard said jokingly as he looked over at Corvus as Marlene hugged the crow against her chest. Noticing Bernard, Vulp immediately rushed to his side as he jumped up into Bernards arms, making him drop Anatolis ball and started to lick him continuously as a sign of affection. "Hey! Hey! Calm down already!" He complained with a smile as Vulp happily reunited with him.

"Some are back together, now just a few more remain." Pietro said as he walked up the stairs, Bernard and Marlene looking over at him and noticing his wounds.

"What happened to you?" Bernard said as he looked over at the dozens of cuts all over Pietro.

"I dealt with the overly dressed siblings. How about you?" Pietro said.

"Tattoo guy. Took some hits too." Bernard said as he lifted his shirt up slightly to reveal some of the bruises he got on his chest, hidden under some bandaging.

"Whoa, you alright?" Corvus said as he looked over from Marlenes arms.

"Yeah, I should be. Marlene, can you tend to Pietros cuts?" Bernard asked as Marlene nodded as Corvus got out of her hands as she walked over to check on Pietros cuts, grabbing a healing balm from her utility belt.

"Now all we have to do is find Camilla, Anatoli and Baurs." Bernard said as he looked at the group.

"Way ahead of you." A male voice said as the group looked down the stairs as Anatoli, Camilla and Baurs started to approach them from below.

"Glad to see the band back together." Camilla said as she and Anatoli got upstairs.

"My ball!" Anatoli exclaimed gleefully as he rushed over to his ball and jumped onto it.

"Someone's happy." Baurs said as she looked over at Anatoli as Bernard walked over to pet the giant Elemental.

"How you doing?" Bernard asked.

"Your concern for me is appreciated but I'm more concerned for your own." Baurs stated casually as she looked at him.

"I probably got more exercise today than I have had in a good while." Bernard said as he scratched his head as Camilla walked over and embraced Bernard from behind.

"Nothing wrong with that. Hehehe." Camilla said as she pressed against Bernards back. "How'd things go?" She asked as Bernard looked over at Marlene who made a calming expression as she nodded towards him.

"Things were fine." Marlene said with a smile.

"Yeah, I'd say so." Bernard said with a calming smile as he looked at Camilla, who made a surprised look.

_"Don't normally see that look from him... Something happen?"_ Camilla thought with a raised eyebrow.

"Look enough of the semantics, we gotta get back to the reality and look for the child." Bernard said as he got out of Camillas embrace.

'"Right!"' The group said as they all proceeded to head up the stairs towards the next few floors.

"Corvus, Vulp, Baurs. Return to my body, I don't want us to separate like what happened earlier." Bernard said as the creatures nodded in agreeance as the Celestial Spirits turned into light particles and entered Bernards Lacrima pacemaker and Baurs turned into her small rock bracelet form and attached to Bernards right wrist.

Meanwhile, within a dimly lit room of the base, Claudia paced around the room as she would casually glanced down at the sleeping baby, Merilo, inside a small makeshift crib made out of clay. As she continued to shift back and forth, Claudia would become lost in thought as she pondered ideas of what to do with the child.

_"Stay asleep, little one. Because by the time you wake up, you're going to become more beautiful than mother nature intended for you. And it will all be because of my hands... Hehehe..." _Claudia thought with a devilish grin as she continued walking around. "But what to make of you I wonder?" She said aloud to herself before she walked over to a nearby table covered in art supplies as she tapped on a crystal ball-shaped Lacrima.

Following her touching the crystal ball, the Lacrima begun to glow as an astral projection of a screen appeared above the crystal. On the screen, moving in motion up the stairs, was Bernard, Camilla and the rest of the Psycho Circus team as Claudia looked at surveillance footage of the group traversing her base.

_"How the- Damn those morons! I trained them in artistic magics and they still couldn't succeed when I needed them!" _Claudia thought as she grit her teeth as she watched the Psycho Circus wizards continue up the stairs, getting closer to her location. _"I have one trick up my sleeve left though..." _She thought as she softened her angered face until she caught sight of Bernard amongst the group. "...Ugly..." Claudia said aloud to herself.

Reaching an upper floor to the dilapidated building, the group came upon a large door at the end of a large hallway with a red carpet rolled out in front of it. Above the doorway, in big bright letters with lights flashing in a sequence to display the grandiose nature of the room behind it, the room was listed as "Claudia Vandeerheem's Grand Gallery of Art!"'

"Someone's humble..." Anatoli said sarcastically as he looked at the sign.

"And I'm guessing somewhere in there is the Balsamicos kid." Camilla said with a serious look in her eyes.

"Hopefully not covered in hot wax..." Marlene said with a worried expression.

"Lil' Bern." Pietro said as he looked over and caught Bernard attention. "Strategy?" He asked.

"She attacked me with a giant scorpion sculpture with a time stopping camera for a head, It'd be stupid not to think she wouldn't have some kind of trap ready..." Bernard said with a serious look.

"In that case, I'll go ahead." Camilla said as she clapped her hands together and a layer of energy formed over her body, covering her body in a shield.

"I'll follow behind." Pietro said as he followed behind Camilla with his belt on his shoulder.

"You two get behind me." Anatoli said on his ball as he stood in front of Bernard and Marlene.

As they got closer to the door, Bernard looked down at the carpet that was on the way towards the entrance to Claudias gallery. Becoming suspicious, he shuffled his feet off the carpet to the edges of the rug to where he wasn't stepping on it anymore as he looked at Camilla put her hand on the door to the gallery.

Touching the door, Camilla noticed a magic circle suddenly formed in front of the door with her raising her arms in a defensive stance to protect herself and the others until she noticed that nothing happened.

"Nothing happened... Well, that's anticlimactic..." Anatoli said as he raised his eyebrow in confusion.

"Maybe she knows she is outmatched in numbers, she's giving up..." Marlene said as she scratched her head.

Glancing down at the floor, Bernard noticed that the carpet had changed from its red color to a black and white circular shape, similar to the void paintings that separated the group previously.

"Guys!" Bernard said as everyone looked down at the floor and noticed the floor was different. As they looked down, everyone stepping on the carpet was beginning to melt and transform into paint, much like before.

"Bernard!" Camilla exclaimed as she, Pietro, Marlene and Anatoli had disappeared as Bernard clung to the wall to avoid disappearing once again.

"...God damn it..." Bernard said to himself as he fell down to the floor against the wall of the hallway. _"Calm down, calm down, calm down! Think, think, think!" _He thought with nervousness as he slapped his face in an effort to get his head on straight. "Okay, okay... They have to be alive, the portals the first time spat me out in another location in this place so they have to be alive. Camilla and Pietro can take care of things... And me..." Bernard said aloud to himself before standing up and looking over at the doorway to the gallery.

Swallowing spit, Bernard turned his attention away from the door back to the carpet as it returned back to a red color of normalcy once again. Growing nervous, he reached behind himself to a back pocket and taken out a clear flask he had that was filled with a red, black and blue liquid sloshing around inside before putting it back behind him.

"...If this doesn't go according to the way I think it will, I'm so screwed..." Bernard said to himself as he looked at the entrance the gallery as he walked over to it.

* * *

**No more zombies, no more clothing and no more help unfortunately. Anatoli managed to defeat the zombified sculptures with some assistance from Baurs, Pietros magic belt had proved to be too much for the fashion obsessed Tazo and Tiza and the group reunited for a bit until Claudia had one last trick to separate the group while she "works" on her artistic desires for the child but she missed one person: Bernard. Where are the other Psycho Circus wizards? How will Bernard and his pets fare on their own in defeating the increasingly crafty dark wizard artisan that is Claudia Vanderheem? Find out next time on Menagerie! **

**Authors Note: (I actually made it to forty chapters... Never thought this would happen to be completely honest.)**


	41. Chapter 41

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 12:20 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Amidst the chaos inside the home of the dark guild, Pazuzu's Easel, the continued rampage out in the front that was distracting the lesser members of the faction of evil wizard painters waged on as Formosa, the slime demon, continued to thrash about in front of the derelict building.

"Gaahh!" A red cloaked member of Pazuzu's Easel exclaimed as Formosa slammed its giant liquid hands against the ground, sending the member flying into the woods.

"Damn it! Keep creating things with the Picto Magic! We have to defeat this thing before Claudia becomes angry with us for taking too long!" Another member of the dark guild said as a multitude of members started to draw on pads with Light Pens in an effort to fight the giant slime.

"You know how impatient she gets!" Another member exclaimed in worry as they continued to draw.

'"Unison Picto: Wyvern!"' The large group of Pazuzu's Easel artists exclaimed in unison.

A large magic circle formed from the groups drawings as a large drawing of a green winged lizard-like creature with razor sharp teeth had formed to combat Formosa. Ramming into Formosa, the Wyvern drawing attempted to knock over the slime demon as Formosa proceeded to hold its ground as the Wyvern attempted to swat at it with its wings.

"Yes! Do it!" A member of the dark guild cheered as the drawing the group had created in combination of all their magic was making an effort to defeat the slime demon that was destroying parts of their guild home.

"Hey! Look!" One of the dark guild members muttered as they noticed a window of the guild hall had shifted into a different shape, similar to a black portal painting that they were familiar with that belonged to their leader. "That's one of Master Claudias portal paintings!" He continued.

"But why is it spawning here!?" Another member exclaimed in confusion.

Suddenly, ejecting from the portal like trash out of a garbage chute, was the members of Psycho Circus, one by one. Out came Anatoli followed by Pietro, landing on the smaller monkey-like man as Camilla and Marlene both landed on Pietro and bounced onto the ground off his large body. Emerging after them was Anatolis ball that bounced over to one of the dark guild members who picked it up, confused as to what he was looking at.

"Ge-get off!" Anatoli complained as he clutched at his back in pain from Pietro landing on him.

"Sorry." Pietro said calmly as he stood back up and looked over at the girls. "You two alright?" He asked.

"Just my pride being damaged..." Marlene complained as she and Camilla tried to stand up.

"Yeah, mine too..." Camilla said in annoyance as she glanced over at the myriad of cloaked dark guild members. "And it doesn't look like we are alone either..." She said as the others looked over at the group of grunts.

"Hey!" Anatoli exclaimed in anger as he pointed at the one wizard holding his ball in his arms. "That's mine, you jerk!" He continued to holler.

"Who are you guys?!" One of the Pazuzu's Easel members questioned as he and the rest of the members looked at the Psycho Circus wizards with rage in their eyes.

_"They don't know we snuck in..."_ Camilla thought with a serious look as Pietro, Anatoli and Marlene looked on with similar seriousness. Glancing in the direction of Formosa battling the Wyvern drawing, she turned back towards the Pazuzu's Easel wizards. "Guys... Notice the lack of a certain someone..." She said as she started to glow from her magic.

"Huh?" Anatoli said in response as he looked around. "Oh! Bernie isn't here!" He said with a positive tone until he realized what he just said. "Oh crap... Bernie isn't here..." Anatoli said as Marlene and Pietro looked back up at the derelict building.

"I'm assuming he wasn't standing on the carpet to Claudia Vanderheems gallery room." Pietro said as he looked over at the other dark wizards, beginning to draw on their notepads with their Light Pens.

"Which means he is going to have to face her on his own..." Marlene said with a bothered tone as she reached for another vial of toxins on her belt.

"Make this fast guys... Gotta make sure we can find Bernard after this is over." Camilla said as she formed a battle pose. _"Please be okay Bernard..."_ She thought with a hint of worry over her boyfriends wellbeing.

Meanwhile, back inside the building, Bernard paced around outside the entrance to Claudias gallery area. Hastily moving from wall to wall in the hallway, the beanie-sporting young man was sweating while trying to form ideas of what to do next.

_"Keep thinking! Keep thinking!" _Bernard thought wildly as he tried to form ideas as to what is behind the door, what he is dealing with and how he is going to rescue the baby from the clutches of Claudia on his own. _"Okay... No backup, just me and the creatures in me... This is gonna suck..."_ He thought as he looked over at the door.

Approaching the entrance, Bernard swallowed spit in nervousness as he grabbed the knob. Closing his eyes, he expected something to happen like a few minutes ago when he allies disappeared but nothing had occurred as he opened his eyes and he sighed in relief.

_"Must be on a magical timer of some kind..."_ Bernard thought as he opened the door and entered into the gallery.

Within a large and well lit room, Bernard looked around and saw a series of disconnected walls with random assortments of paintings hung up for display and presentation. Various sculptures of humans and creatures stood around the room in different areas and murals of images with vastly different colors stained the room in a gaudy vibe that made Bernard grow uneasy as he stood in the room.

_"...This place is nasty..."_ Bernard thought with a disturbed look in his eyes as he looked at all the paintings depicting disturbing scenes of violence and cruelty. "...I'm not an artist but I can definitely tell if this was held up in an actual art gallery, people would riot..." He said quietly to himself as he eyed up and down a painting.

"You wouldn't believe how angry this makes me..." Said a female voice as Bernard looked over as he heard footsteps. Emerging from the darkness, Claudia Vanderheem appeared with a disgusted look on her face as she stood several feet away from Bernard. "I would have loved for any of your little friends to come in here and witness my art in its splendid glory but no... It had to be the ugly and disgusting one with a rock in his heart." She said with a shaking head.

"Where are they? That little portal trick you did out there supposed to be your "last resort" or something?" Bernard said with a serious tone as he looked down and noticed Claudia was holding a suitcase in her hand. _"That suitcase... She had a living sculpture thing in there back at the Balsamicos…"_ He thought with a contemplative look as he turned his attention back to Claudia.

"That "little portal trick" was a little trap I had set up for my followers to avoid them sneaking peeks at my work until I felt they were ready to see their beauty." Claudia said with an evil smirk. "I prefer to show my beautiful pieces of art to those when they are ready to be enlightened by my visionary wonders." She said with a grandiose tone of self-aggrandizing.

'"Enlightened?"' Bernard said with a criticizing tone, prompting Claudia to look at Bernard with a disturbed look. '"Visionary? Beautiful?" What are you on about?" He continued to speak.

"Are your brains more mushy than I thought they were. You heard me loud and clear." Claudia said with a face that started to show signs of anger.

"Please..." Bernard said with an unimpressed look in his face as he looked at some of the paintings. _"Maybe if I can keep this conversation going, I can muster up a bit more time to get my strategy all planned out..."_ He thought nervously as he looked back over at Claudia.

"As if you know anything about art..." Claudia said with a tone of annoyance.

"I don't but I know a thing or two about entertaining others... You spend years as a child in front of a circus for so long, you learn how to keep people on the edge of their seats. And these little decorative room hangings and knickknacks you have are not worth watching for longer than a few seconds before someone laughs it off." Bernard said in a critical tone.

"Like your little sideshow routines are even worth anybody's time!" Claudia exclaimed in a tone of rage as she dropped her suitcase on the ground with clenched fists as Bernard looked at the suitcase.

_"Okay... She dropped the suitcase... Step in the right direction..."_ Bernard thought as he continued to stare at Claudia in the midst of a tirade.

"This is what I get, this is what I get for dealing with uncouth douchebags who don't understand true art!" Claudia said aloud as she begun to rant to herself as Bernard looked on.

"...Why do people keep calling me that?" Bernard said to himself as he noted Claudias description of himself as a "douchebag."

"Ugh!" Claudia grunted in annoyance as she continued to pace around.

"Oh knock it off!" Bernard said, finally catching her attention. "You know why I'm here, so talk!" He said as he pointed at Claudia as she took a deep breath to calm her nerves.

"Well, guess I should apologize for that fit of behavior but the "sorry" would be wasted on someone like you." Claudia said as she returned to her haughty attitude. "Let me guess; you aren't here to acknowledge my wonders?" She said with folded arms and her dark grin returning.

"How astute..." Bernard said with a twitch in his eye. "Where's Merilo Balsamico?" He continued.

"My art model is currently in the next room." Claudia said as she casually pointed towards a doorway in the room. "Still sleeping her little head off. Blissfully unaware of everything and everyone." She said as she locked eyes with Bernard.

_"Still asleep? Jeez, kid is one heavy sleeper." _Bernard thought with surprise as he wondered about the babies ability to hibernate. "Guess me asking you to let her go isn't going to convince you to just stop, is it?" He said as he looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"And lose my golden opportunity?" Claudia said with a serious expression towards Bernard. "Do you know how difficult it is to capture "pure innocence" in the physical spectrum?" She asked towards Bernard. "The mere idea is borderline impossible but I can finally accomplish just that with that little baby. Encased in molding clay."

"...So that's what you want to do? Cover her in some soil and then just have her on display in this room for your own enjoyment?" Bernard said as he tried to comprehend her logic.

"It will be a glorious day. It took me so much time and I still need more time to come up with what I want to do with the child once she is encased. Such a process... Always needing to figure out how much paint and clay to use..." Claudia said as she begun to ramble to herself once again.

"Is your head so far up your own butt, you can see your colon!?" Bernard exclaimed in agitation.

"First, gross. Second, do not interrupt a genius when they are forming ideas." Claudia said in a tone of superiority as she put her hand up.

"I swear if you keep talking to me like that, I will sick my fox friend on you and have him tear off your arms..." Bernard said with an angered tone.

"Oh? So I'm guessing my little trick out there didn't split up you and your beast friends? Shame." Claudia said with her usual haughtiness.

"Yeah, didn't get rid of them this time." Bernard said as he pointed at his heart Lacrima.

"Hmmm, so that's where you store them." Claudia said with an unimpressed tone.

"What? You criticizing this now too?" Bernard said with an angry tone as he pointed once again at his pacemaker.

"Just the idea of having a Lacrima inside you like that makes me nearly vomit for some reason... Maybe it's a sign of your lack of elegance and beauty." Claudia said as she looked at Bernards torso.

_"...I want to headbutt this bitch into a paste..."_ Bernard thought with a twitch in his eye once again. "Let me guess? You're the type that feels like they are going to be sick just looking at someone in a wheelchair or missing an arm?" He asked with disdain.

"Ugh! Don't start talking about stuff like that, it's going to make me sick..." Claudia said with a disgusted tone as she jokingly bent forward like she was faking illness as Bernard became more and more annoyed by the nonchalant attitude of the insane artist in front of him.

Holding his wrist threateningly with the bracelet form of Baurs around it, Bernard put his fingers on the bracelet in a way that caught Claudias attention. Stopping her fake attitude of disgust for the physically different, Claudia stared at Bernard with a combative glare.

"You open your filthy mouth one more time and I'm going to bring out one of my friends to rip out your tongue..." Bernard said with angered tone as Claudia rolled her eyes, unimpressed.

"Oh please... Are you expecting me to just give up my model with no fight?" Claudia said as she reached for her belt where her ornate curved knife was.

"Considering the last resort you used to isolate the two of us was that lame carpet trick, I think my odds are pretty high..." Bernard said as he continued to hold Baurs bracelet, ready to summon her.

"Pfff!" Claudia spat out in a laugh. "Seriously! Do you seriously believe that my little "do not disturb" teleportation spell is my last line of defense?" She said with a smirk as Bernard suddenly noticed that the room started to feel like it shook.

Looking around with concern, Bernard scanned the room with his eyes as he noticed the large gallery felt like it was being hit by an earthquake of some kind. Glancing at Claudia, an evil smirk forming on her face, she pointed upward as Bernard slowly shifted his eyes upward and noticed something hanging from the ceiling.

Releasing from the ceiling, a figure had dropped from the top of the room and appeared in-between Bernard and Claudia. Standing upright, the creature was white and gray, as if it was made of clay and iron casted into a hybrid of a human and a crab with four crustacean-like legs and a pair of pincers where the hands would be. The human-like body attached the legs and arms was tall and sported a flat head with large razor-like teeth that Bernard recognized as the former photographer from the party the night prior: Loumo.

"The-the photographer? What the hell did you do to him?" Bernard said hesitantly as he looked at the monstrous crab/human sculpture that used to be the nervous acting large associate of Claudia. _"Was wondering what happened to this guy..."_ He thought.

"I was really unimpressed by the camera work he did yesterday so I gave him a little "beautification" process to teach him a lesson... Little bit of clay and some cast iron molding and now, he has worth... Hehehe." Claudia evilly explained as Bernard looked at the formerly human creature.

_"I'll show you "worth."' _Bernard thought with rage as he couldn't take listening to Claudia anymore. "Guys!" He exclaimed as light particles emerged from his Lacrima and he pressed on the bracelet to summon out Baurs with Bernards beastly allies appearing in front of him.

"Whoa!?" Corvus exclaimed as he flapped his wings next to Bernard as he looked at the Loumo monster. "The hell is this thing?!" The crow said with confusion.

"Appears to be that cameraman that Mr. Bernard mentioned..." Baurs said plainly as she and Vulp stood in front of Bernard to keep him from getting too close.

"Didn't expect him to be so ugly- Wait a minute... Where's the others?" Corvus asked towards Bernard.

"Long story..." Bernard said as he motioned for Corvus to face forward towards Claudia.

Looking behind Baurs to notice Claudia walking over to her suitcase, Bernard swallowed spit as she picked up the suitcase and looked with a gaze of combative excitement in her eyes.

_"...Really wish the others were here right now..."_ Bernard thought with worry as he looked slightly behind him at his back pocket as he stared at the clear flask filled with unusual fluid once more.

"What's up?" Corvus said with concern as he noticed Bernard.

"Precautionary tactics... Just make sure to follow my commands..." Bernard said as he locked eyes with Claudia once more as he put his hand up and transferred his magical energy to the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental.

"Got it." Corvus said as he sparked up his colorful electricity as Vulp nodded as his fur begun to move on its own.

"As you wish." Baurs said as she readied herself.

"Loumo! Get to work!" Claudia screamed as she pointed her curved knife at Bernard and his team. In response, the white crab sculpture version of Loumo had opened his sharp mouth and howled a monstrous growl.

* * *

**Time for round two between Bernard and Claudia and this time, it doesn't look like Bernard is gonna drop the ball to preserve his and others safety like before. With Camilla and the other wizards of Psycho Circus disposed outside to contend with the grunts outside of the building, Bernard confronts Claudia in an effort to find the child, once and for all. After a back and forth of insults and the reveal of Loumo being converted into an iron and clay monster, Bernard and his beastly friends are prepared to do battle with her and finally rescue the, somehow still, sleeping Merilo. How will the battle progress? Will Bernard succeed in bringing down the dark guilds leader? And still, what the hell is up with that flask? For the conclusion and answers to these questions, see you next time on Menagerie! **

**Authors Note: (Sorry this took so long, I have been very busy with life crap and I couldn't get around to working on this chapter as quickly as I usually am able to. This is also surprisingly my shortest chapter since the earliest ones I made for the story. Felt like bringing that up. BTW, I have been working on figuring out more creatures for Bernards internal zoo... Some might surprise you what I have came up with. Hehehe.)**


	42. Chapter 42

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 1:40 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Lunging forward with his right pincer, the monstrous Loumo attempted to strike at Bernard, prompting him to prepare a counteroffensive.

"Baurs! You're on defense!" Bernard exclaimed as the large rock lizard quickly stepped forward to block the attack.

Rushing forward, the large Baurs blocked the pincer strike against her body with her hard rock form. Bouncing off her body, Loumo attempted to swing back around with its other arm for another strike against Baurs but the large Earth Elemental proceeded to rush forward into the crab/human sculpture in an effort to push it back, locking it in place in a test of strength.

"Corvus, aim for the head with an electro-ball attack." Bernard said as he looked at Corvus as the crow smirked.

"Oh yeah, here I come!" Corvus said as he flew forward and sparked up electricity. Shifting his wings together, he formed a red and white ball of lightning energy and chucked it directly at the face of the Loumo monster. Receiving the blast in the cranial region, the Loumo monster was electrocuted but acted as if it didn't take any damage as it continued to be held back by Baurs.

_"Damn it..."_ Bernard thought with a wince as he looked on, glancing in the direction of Claudia with a cruel smirk on her face.

"What the hell!? I threw a good amount into that!" Corvus shouted in surprise as he noticed the lack of damage from his attack.

"It's the metal bits mixed with the clay..." Bernard said aloud as Corvus looked back towards the beanie sporting young man. "The metal is conducting the electricity but the clay is stopping it from possibly reaching the real him under the material..." He said as he looked at the creature.

"Oh come on! That's a load of scientific bullcrap!" Corvus exclaimed as his body sparked up, ready for another attack attempt.

"Wait!" Bernard said as he raised his hand to stop Corvus. "Save your energy!" He said as Corvus proceeded to stop. _"I need him at as much power as possible... Because she hasn't done anything yet..."_ He thought as he glanced over at Claudia once again, noticing her standing around with her suitcase in hand and doing nothing outside of watching, causing Bernard to grow more and more uneasy.

Baurs, continuing to struggle at pushing back the large crab monster man, looked upward and noticed Loumo had lifted his crab claw arms and proceeded to slam both of his arms into Baurs backside, causing her to fall down onto her chest and cracking her hard carapace slightly.

_"Oh no... She can't hold this up for much longer with the energy I gave... Damn it, plan B!" _Bernard thought as he looked on with a struggled expression. "Baurs, mud spray! Aim for the ground!" He ordered as the damaged Baurs quickly opened her mouth.

Expunging her torrent attack of mud downward into the ground, the force launched Baurs into a ramming attack that uppercut Loumo into the chest of his monstrous form. Sending herself and Loumo upward towards the ceiling, Baurs crushed the monstrous sculpture against the top of the room as the two fell back down to the floor.

"Ugh!" Baurs grunted as she hit the ground as she twisted to get back on all fours. In response, Bernard proceeded to point his fingers in the direction of Baurs, transferring his energy into her as her body started to grow back some of the rocks and stone that formed her body.

_"Crap... Baurs ain't looking so good and Corvus' attacks don't work on him."_ Bernard thought as he looked over at Vulp, standing by Bernard in a protective manner. _"And Vulp is on standby... Damn it, I need to break up this standstill of- huh?"_ He continued to think until he noticed Claudia was glancing in another direction, not bothering to look at the fight between her sculpture monster and Bernards beasty allies.

Looking over, Bernard looked in the same direction as Claudia and noticed the paintings on the walls had become uncentered and some of the rooms statues had shaken and twisted a little from the reverberations caused by Baurs and Loumo falling and hitting the ground.

"Tch!" Claudia grunted as she clicked her tongue as Bernard noticed the sudden action from her.

_"She's... Worried over her art? Wait... That's the weak point!" _Bernard thought until he came to a realization that may have turned the tide in his favor. "Baurs! Are you good enough to move?!" He asked of the rock lizard.

"I am now..." Baurs said in a slightly pained tone.

"Kid? Got any ideas?" Corvus asked as he continued to look on while flapping his wings in the air.

"Maybe..." Bernard said hesitantly. "Baurs, I want you to spray your mud... And aim for Loumo to hit the wall." He said as he pointed at a wall with paintings on it, prompting Claudias eyes to widen.

"What?!" Claudia screamed in a shocked and defiant tone.

"Now!" Bernard ordered as Baurs proceeded to open her mouth as Loumo attempted to get up from the ground. Launching another torrent of mud in his direction, Loumo was pushed back by the force of the liquid and was sent crashing into a painting adorned wall.

"No!" Claudia violently screamed as she saw Loumo leave a large indent in the wall that knocked over two of her statues and tear into a painting.

"Ha! Maybe next time you have a "big battle," you don't have it in your treasure room!" Corvus said in a mocking tone as Claudia was staring at the destruction of her artwork. As she stood with a blank expression that was trying to hide the rage boiling up inside her, Bernard looked on with a drip of sweat rolling down the side of his face.

_"...She looks like she's ready to blow a gasket..."_ Bernard thought with a nervous tone as he noticed Claudia begun to slowly walk to the downed Loumo as the monstrous sculpture flailed to try and get up as his master approached him. Looking up from the ground at her, Claudia looked down at him with disdain as she lifted her leg and begun to stomp on Loumo's head.

"You flat-headed... Useless... Uncultured... Idiot!" Claudia bellowed with anger as she stomped more and more into the head of Loumo between her words, her angered frenzy startling Bernard, the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental. "I spend all that time covering you in my clay and burning iron onto you and this is the "thanks" I get?! I made you worth a damn and you act like a dumbass and ruin my hard work!" She continued to scream with insanity in her tone as she made a harsh glare into the slightly crushed head of the monstrous Loumo.

"She's going insane..." Baurs said in Bernards direction.

"She already was..." Bernard said as Corvus flew over towards Baurs.

"Hey, this might be our chance…" Corvus whispered to the group as he got closer to Baurs, Bernard nodding in response.

"Vulp, stay here." Bernard said as Vulp nodded in compliance. Looking over at Claudia, standing over the bloody headless mess of clay that was left from her ruthless stomping on what used to be her subordinate, she proceeded to shift her agitated glare in Bernards direction.

"I always knew you were a piece of trash with no respect for fine art... But this is destruction of my life's work... And I won't take that lightly..." Claudia said in a crazed tone as she lifted her suitcase and proceeding to unlock it at the latches.

"What're you gonna do? Spit out another dumb knickknack from your little case? Doubt you have much in there!" Corvus said in a cocky tone.

"Don't tempt her dude!" Bernard said in an annoyed tone.

"..."Dumb?"' Claudia quietly said with a twitch in her eye as she took Corvus's insult very seriously.

_"...Damn it... What now...?"_ Bernard thought with hesitation.

Opening her case and dropping it on the floor, Claudia stood out with her curved knife in hand and with a furious expression forming. Looking on, Bernard and the beasts looked down at the case and noticed a multitude of different colored smokes begun to emerge from inside. As the smoke permeated, the pouches that lined the suitcase had started to expand and bulge to the point where tiny white hands with gems encrusted in them stuck out.

"What the hell?!" Corvus exclaimed as Bernard and the others looked on as a myriad of small white imp-ish creatures with hunched backs, thin limps and solid black eyes with multicolored gemstones sticking out of their bodies begun to climb out of the suitcase. Dozens upon dozens of the tiny creatures continued to crawl out of the container as they continued to spill out from the case, like ants escaping an ant hill as they swarmed around the floor and crawled up the walls, making sure to avoid touching Claudias art.

"My word..." Baurs said as she and Corvus looked at the myriad of small clay imps around them as the creatures glared at the beasts.

"...Wow, maybe I should've kept my mouth shut..." Corvus said with wide eyes as he looked around as the group was now surrounded.

_"Crap, we lost the numbers advantage..."_ Bernard thought as he looked around at the small imps surrounding the ground, forming a circle as Baurs and Corvus moved back towards Bernard for cover.

"Wait a minute, they're so tiny, why are we acting like cowards!?" Corvus complained.

"Because there's practically a thousand of them and look..." Bernard answered as he pointed over at the case as it continued to spawn imp creatures. "The suitcase is still spitting them out..."

"Then we gotta get to work!" Corvus said as he begun to spark up, launching blasts of lightning in random directions that were hitting the imps, sending them flying but as he continued to spark up, more and more came and continued to surround the group. "Kid?! A little planning would be nice!" Corvus exclaimed as he realized that his attacks weren't make a dent in their numbers.

"I know already! Give me some time!" Bernard said as he tried to think. Unbeknownst to him, however, was a few of the imps quietly walked over to his feet and proceeded to open their mouths and bite Bernard on the leg. "Yeouch!" He exclaimed in pain as he looked down and noticed some of the imps attempted to crawl up his leg and bite into him. "Ge-get off me!" Bernard exclaimed as he quickly grabbed at the imps and threw them off his lower body, back into the swarm.

"Are you alright?" Baurs asked as she proceeded stomp on some of the imps that approached.

"Physically?! No! Mentally?! Even worse!" Bernard replied with an agitated tone as he looked over at the suitcase and noticed it was starting to spawn a set of much larger creatures. _"Oh what now?!"_ Bernard thought as he noticed two sets of large muscular hands with three fingers on each begun to grow from out of the case.

With their large horse-like heads with muscular golem bodies and wielding large claymores, a set of minotaur-like golems made of clay with gems and paint splattered colors appeared from Claudias suitcase as it continued to spit out imps. Raising their claymores, the pair of horse-headed golems attempted to rush towards the team as Vulp, transforming his tail into a pair of broadsword-like objects proceeded to clash blades with the large golems, blocking them.

"Nice work Vulp- Ahhh!" Corvus said as some of the imps jumped up from the ground and proceeded to pull and weigh down on Corvus as they start to nibble and chomp on him, dragging him into the swarm. "Hey! Hey! Ouch! I'm not a turkey for you to munch on! Ow!" Corvus complained as the imps continued to bite as he was pulled into the swarm.

"Crap, Corvus!" Bernard exclaimed.

"I'll go assist!" Baurs said as she rushed into the fray, kicking over the imps as she attempted to rush to Corvus' aid. Approaching where he was swarmed, a sudden burst of electricity appeared as Corvus flew out of the pile and into the air, away from the pile as Baurs looked at him, covered in bite marks. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"I feel violated..." Corvus said with annoyance. Looking back towards Bernard, Corvus looked at the beanie sporting boy standing behind Vulp as the fox continued to clash swords with the claymore wielding horse golems.

_"Vulp can't protect me and destroy these things at the same time... Compromise time..."_ Bernard thought as he swallowed spit. "Vulp, fight them, leave me!" Bernard ordered as Vulp looked back with concern as he held back the claymores. "I'll be fine..." He said with concern as he looked over at Baurs and Corvus.

"Kid! Plan?!" Corvus asked as the large rock lizard and crow looked at the swarm begun to approach them once again.

"Get to work! Start fighting them!" Bernard said as the two creatures started to attack the creatures.

"What about you!?" Corvus said as he was firing off low powered sparks in the direction of the clay imps.

"...About to do something dumb..." Bernard said as he looked over at Claudia, who was blankly looking at the damaged painting and sculptures from before. _"She's not paying attention, the damage to her art has her lost in her own little world... Only idea I can think of..."_ Bernard thought as he looked in the direction of the suitcase. _"Here goes nothing..."_

Sprinting out of the circle away from Vulp, Bernard dashed towards the suitcase in an effort to grab and close it, kicking over the imps to avoid them. As he reached forward, Claudias eyes rolled towards Bernard as she noticed him attempting to grab the case, prompting her to sprint in the direction of where Bernard was heading and cut him off.

"Doofh!" Bernard grunted as Claudia pushed him out of the way, onto the ground.

"Stay away..." Claudia said as the imps dispersed from around where Claudia and Bernard were as she held up her curved knife. "This douchebag is mine..." She said with a crazy set of eyes.

"Damn it-Gah!" Bernard said as he sat up before getting his throat grasped by Claudias hand. Holding him down by his neck, Bernard struggled to breathe as she looked at him with disdain.

"You are the villain here, not me! You are an enemy of the arts!" Claudia screamed as she pointed the end of her curved knife against Bernards cheek, lightly cutting him.

"You're an insane kidnapper and psychopath who likes to mess with peoples bodies to fit her own viewpoint of beauty!" Bernard retorted back as he gripped with one hand at the wrist of the hand choking him. _"Crap, have to use it now!" _He thought as he moved his other hand in the direction of his back pocket.

"I've had enough of your damn mouth and your disgusting uncouth eyes and your- huh? What are you grabbing at?!" Claudia angrily ranted before noticing Bernard was reaching for something, prompting her reach behind him and grab what he had. "The heck is this?" She said as she looked at what Bernard had on him; a clear glass flask filled with a mysterious liquid of blue, black and red fluid.

_"...Okay, time for a change of plans..."_ Bernard thought as he looked at Claudia holding the flask. "No, don't!" Bernard shouted as Claudia looked down at him and noticing his reaction. "That's my medicine! I need it for my heart!" He exclaimed.

_"What the hell is he talking about? I don't remember him taking any meds?" _Corvus thought as he continued to fight the imps on the ground.

"Give it back!" Bernard said as he reached for it in Claudias hand as she used her other hand holding the knife to push Bernard back down to the ground threateningly.

"Shut up!" Claudia exclaimed. "...You care about this huh?" She said with a devilish smirk forming on her face. "Then you can lose something you care about as well!" Claudia screamed as she stood up and threw the glass flask against the wall, shattering it and letting the liquid seep to the ground.

Bernard, looking at the liquid dripping off the wall, then turned his head back towards the direction of Claudia, who was standing over the downed young man with a wicked grin as she felt happy over destroying something Bernard owned, thinking it was important to him. As she looked down, however, her happy expression turned to one of confusion as she noticed a peculiar sight: Bernard with a cocky smile forming on his face.

"...Why are you smiling like that...? Wipe that stupid smirk of your face..." Claudia said slowly and angrily as she pointed her curved knife at him once again.

"Nah." Bernard bluntly retorted. "Give it a couple of seconds." He said while still smirking as Claudia in her aggravated state grabbed him by his shirt and then pushed him against the wall of the room, holding him with her hand on his neck once more.

"Oh no- Huh?" Corvus said as he swatted away more of the clay imps until he noticed the liquid in the flask, that was dripping off the wall from where Claudia broke it, had started to move and twist as if it was alive. Slinking away, the fluid shifted into a crack in the floorboards and escaped the room. _"Wait... Was that some of the big goop?"_ Corvus thought.

"Quit it with that disgusting smile on your face!" Claudia complained as she continued to choke Bernard. "The more I look at it, the more I want to vomit!" She continued in her enraged state.

"Then do it! Because you won't!" Bernard retorted. _"Just got to bait her to draw some more time..." _Bernard thought as he held his ground.

"Gladly..." Claudia said as she lifted her knife overhead to stab Bernard.

"No stop!" Corvus exclaimed as Vulp and Baurs jerked their heads in worry as Claudia swung her knife down towards Bernards skull.

"...How long can you hold your breath?" Bernard asked casually as she suddenly stopped from trying to stab Bernard in the head.

"...What?" Claudia responded confused. "The hell are you talking about?" She continued, not sure what the young man was doing by asking that question.

"I can hold mine for about a minute... Comes in handy." Bernard said casually as he jerked his head in the other direction.

"What are you looking at- Oh my god..." Claudia said as she turned her head, noticing a sight that bewildered and terrified her.

Dripping from out of the backside of one of her paintings was the red, blue and black fluid that was originally in the flask but in a larger quantity. Looking upward and then downward, the fluid came out of the ceiling and emerging from the floorboards, respectively. Engulfing some of the clay imps at the same time, boney spikes emerged from the liquid begun to fill up in the room and the sloshing liquid begun to knock over the paintings and the statues as they became drenched in slime.

"No! My art!" Claudia exclaimed in shock as she let go of Bernard as she attempted to get to some of her art pieces and salvage them as they fell over from the bone spikes knocking them down and become messed up as the slime coated them.

"Whoa! How'd you bring the big slime guy here?!" Corvus asked as he looked at Bernard as some of the imps he was fighting got washed away by Formosa flooding the room.

"Gave Formosa an order to come to my position if I broke that bottle around that piece of its slime as a form of signal for it to arrive here, did it before we even left for the forest because I was being cautious. Now hold your breath!" Bernard explained he looked down at the slime. "Formosa! Do not let a single drop of yourself leave this room! Stay concentrated only in here!" He barked.

With the imps and the claymore wielding golems slipping into the fluid and as Vulp, Baurs and Corvus floated within the water, Bernard and Claudia were now floating as well as Bernard held his breath and swam into the slime. Looking around, he swam in the direction of Claudias suitcase that was expunging the clay dolls, floating around in the goop, as he closed it, sealing them inside. As he did that, Bernard swam back to the surface of the liquid as it nearly reached the ceiling.

"Formosa! Return!" Bernard exclaimed as the fluid and bone spiked stopped filling the room and begun to draw itself back into Bernards Lacrima pacemaker as the golems and imps laid sprawled around the room broken from Formosas fluid and spikes having pierced through them amidst the fighting.

Corvus, Baurs and Vulp had quickly stood back up as they shook off Formosas liquid that they were covered in. Looking in Bernards direction, they noticed he was holding the suitcase as he looked over in Claudias direction as she was cradling a piece of a bust she made as she was kneeling.

"...My... Precious... Pieces..." Claudia said in a broken state of mind as she twisted her head in the direction of Bernard as he held her suitcase. "You... Took... Everything from me!" Claudia screamed as she picked her knife back up and rushed at Bernard to finally kill him.

"Oh no you don't!" Corvus exclaimed as he shot a bolt of lightning in Claudias direction, zapping her into dropping her knife.

"Gaahh!" Claudia screamed as she felt electrocuted.

As she stood dazed, Bernard grabbed the handle of the suitcase and rushed at Claudia, swinging her suitcase towards her face. Smashing her in the side of the head with the edge of the case, Claudia fell to the ground in pain.

"My... Art..." Claudia said before passing out from the blow to her skull as Bernard stood over her, victorious.

"We did it!" Corvus shouted as he flew through the air cheerfully as Vulp jumped up and down in glee.

"Most wonderfully!" Baurs stated casually in similar joy.

"Shhh!" Bernard shushed as he got the creatures to stop celebrating. "We forgetting something?" He asked as he pointed towards the direction of a door in the destroyed gallery as he put the case down.

"Oh right." Baurs said as Bernard walked over to the door.

Opening the entryway, Bernard looked around and saw a preparation room with tools for building art pieces, several unfinished projects as well as a locker that Bernard took one whiff of and immediately decided he didn't want to go near with its disturbing "rotting flesh" smell. Shifting towards the direction of a crib in the room, Bernard swallowed the spit in his mouth and walked over to it, the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental following behind him.

"Okay..." Bernard said as he looked over at the crib, seeing the sleeping infant, Merilo, for the first time since the party last night when she got kidnapped. "Wow… Still conked out..." He said with surprise.

"Dang. A bomb could go off and this kid would still be out." Corvus said as he perched himself on the edge of the crib.

"Hey there little one... Let's get you out of here." Bernard said calmly as he reached down and picked up the child, holding her in his arms. Looking at Merilo, he noticed the child was beginning to open her eyes. "Whoa! She's waking up!" Bernard said with surprise as the others looked at her.

"About time!" Corvus said.

"Amazing." Baurs said simply.

Opening her eyes whilst in Bernards arms, Merilo looked up at the unfamiliar face of Bernard and the other creatures. Immediately upon seeing them, the baby begun to wildly cry and scream loudly in Bernards arms, startling Bernard and the monsters.

"First time waking up and she screams her head off at us?!" Corvus said in surprise.

"Just my luck..." Bernard said with an exhausted smile forming on his face as he looked at the others as he felt tears and snot drip onto his arms and screams in his ears.

* * *

**God damn it! Shut up you stupid artist about beauty and all that! Ugh! I am so glad she got smacked in her dumb face!... Sorry, back to narrating. It was a hard fought battle but finally, Bernard and his beastly allies succeeded in defeating Claudia and her living sculpture creatures at her disposal through Bernard ingenuity and his trump card: calling back Formosa to him with an SOS signal of the creatures fluid in a glass flask. With Claudia defeated, the deed is done and Merilo has been saved, despite her outlandish crying tearing Bernards earlobes into pieces. But what now? What will happen when Bernard returns the child home and what of the team outside? Find out next time in the next exciting chapter of Menagerie!**


	43. Chapter 43

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Defeated Pazuzu's Easel Base (interior), 1:57 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Walking down the stairs with his beastly allies following behind, Bernard continued to hold onto the crying baby, Merilo, as it screamed and drooled in his arms.

"I'm seriously hating this..." Bernard said disgruntled as the baby was practically ripping his ears off with the sound of its shouting and hollering.

"Can we maybe knock out the baby? Like slam its head against the pavement or something until it shuts up?" Corvus said as he flapped his wings with annoyance on his face.

"Hell no!" Bernard retorted as he, Vulp and Baurs looked at Corvus. "Have you ever dealt with a baby?!" He asked of the crow.

"Nope." Corvus bluntly said as Vulp shook his head left and right to signify a negative response.

"This is my first time seeing one." Baurs said as she looked at the child.

"It's definitely not your first time carrying someone though..." Bernard said as he looked at the unconscious body draped across Baurs backside.

Laying unconscious on Baurs was Claudia, following her defeat at the hands of Bernard and his team of creatures that lived within his body. As she was limp, a strand from Vulps tail was wrapped around her wrists to restrain her if she were to wake up and attempt to escape.

"You alright with carrying her?" Bernard asked with concern as drool and snot continued to come off his body from Merilo.

"I am but I am hoping this ends soon, given what she attempted to do to us all." Baurs said as voiced her discontent.

"Wow, did you just whine?" Corvus said with surprise.

"First time for everything." Bernard said with a light smirk as the baby continued to scream. "Oh for the love of- Vulp can you take this little nuisance or something from me?!" He said as he finally grew fed up with holding the child so Vulp obeyed his order and moved his tail over towards Bernard to grab the baby out of his hands.

Held in Vulps tail, Merilo begun to settle down and returned to its sleeping state once again. Noticing this, Bernard made an expression of disbelief as Corvus landed on Bernards shoulder.

"Pfff! Guess we know why she was crying now, huh?! Hahahaha!" Corvus said as he laughed while on Bernards shoulder.

"Sh-shut up!" Bernard said in embarrassment and anger.

"Can we please hurry?" Baurs said as she caught everyones attention. "The feeling of this insane woman on my back is frankly making me ill..." She complained.

"Yeah, we better go find the others. If I am gone for too long, they are going to expect the worst." Bernard said as Corvus flew off his shoulder and begun to walk through the halls towards the exit.

"Whatcha think is gonna happen if they find you gone for too long?" Corvus questioned.

"Well... My guess is Camilla is going to make me even more handicapped than I already am..." Bernard said with a cold sweat dripping down his face as the thought passed his mind with the other creatures growing worried at the possibility of what may happen to their magical benefactor. "Wonder how they are doing? Wherever they are..." He said as he continued to walk with the others proceeding to follow.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Defeated Pazuzu's Easel Base (exterior), 1:59 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Sprawled about the front entrance to the derelict building were the many grunts of the Pazuzu's Easel dark guild, knocked unconscious from being beaten within an inch of their life's from the might and power by the Psycho Circus wizards; Camilla, Pietro, Anatoli and Marlene.

'"Whhhaaaa!"' Some of the still active members of Pazuzu's Easel exclaimed as a small tornado spun around, throwing the villainous painters and artists in different directions. As they hit the ground, the tornado dissipated, revealing Anatoli on top of his ball with a smirk on his face.

"Hahahaha! Woo!" Anatoli exclaimed as he stopped spinning as he stood on his ball. "So much better for my magic!" He said as he looked down at his ball as he flew upward.

"Hey! Quit screwing around!" Marlene shouted as she stood over a few unconscious bodies of the enemy with a cloth in one hand and a bottle of a mysterious purple serum in the other.

"Shut up! I'm happy I got my belongings back!" Anatoli complained as he flew over the battlefield.

As they bickered, Pietro lifted a pair of grunts by their throats in his Mass Muscle form and proceeded to chokeslam them into the ground, leaving craters behind. Coming from his blind spot, one grunt attempted to stab Pietro in the back with a knife but sensing his presence, Pietro swung his large arm backwards and knocked out the grunt with a single strike.

"Ugh..." Pietro strained as he felt some of his muscles begin to hurt.

"Hey, you alright?" Marlene said as she put another cloth of toxins over another grunts mouth and approached Pietro.

"I'm still feeling the injuries from earlier..." Pietro said as he rubbed some of his injured areas from his prior fight with the siblings, Tazo and Tiza.

"The healing balm I used isn't a fully restorative elixir, you shouldn't be fighting after having it applied..." Marlene said as she looked over head and noticed Anatoli, acting as a makeshift bowling ball, ran over a bunch of enemies with his ball at full speed.

"I'll be fine... It's just my old age..." Pietro said as he saw another grunt approaching and cocked back a fist to strike the grunt down to the ground.

"Old or not, I think you're doing just fine." Camilla said as Pietro and Marlene looked over towards her.

Standing atop a barrier box made from her magic, Camilla stood tall as she looked down to the inside of the box. Within the square shaped shield was at least two dozen of the Pazuzu's Easel men and women, unconscious and captured inside.

"That the last of 'em?" Marlene asked as Camilla jumped down from her box.

"Think so-" Camilla said until she was cut off as the trio looked upward and noticed something plummeted toward them. Stepping backwards, another member of Pazuzu's Easel landed face first on the ground as they looked up and saw a smug expression on Anatolis face. "Now we are good." She said as she looked down at the unconscious grunt.

"Oh yeah! Got the last one! I win!" Anatoli said as he danced around on his ball in midair.

"It wasn't a contest, y'know?" Pietro said towards Anatoli as he back down to the ground.

"Now that this has been taken care of, let's hurry inside." Camilla instructed as she quickly moved towards the front entrance.

"Someone's worried for their boyfriend." Anatoli remarked as Camillas face turned red in embarrassment.

"Shu-shut up!" Camilla said flustered as she turned back towards the others.

"Funny, this is different than earlier when you were acting cocky about the fact you two are bedmates." Anatoli joked in response as Marlene and Pietro had light chuckles forming from seeing Camilla acting weirdly.

"Well, this is different! I'm worried he is in trouble is all!" Camilla said as the others followed behind as they got to the door.

"After the slime demon disappeared, I'm assuming it is at his side somehow like the other creatures." Pietro explained as he slowly walked with Anatoli and Marlene.

"We don't know that. The big thing could have just gone to suck on Bernards heart or something..." Camilla said as she got to the door.

"Are you saying Bernard is dead?" Marlene questioned.

"No! No! I'm just... Fearing for the worst..." Camilla said with concern. _"I trust that he is fine but... He hasn't fought another wizard like this since Chester and even then, he was at a disadvantage... And this might be even worse than that time.." _She thought nervously.

"Then lets get this done and find him fast!" Anatoli exclaimed as the muffled sound of crying begun to appear.

Suddenly, as the door flung open close to Camilla, a certain individual stumbled outward and knocked Camilla to the ground. Straddling her, Camilla looked upward as Bernard was now on top of her in a mounting position as the others looked on in surprise.

"Gotcha! You freaking artist- Huh?!" Bernard muttered until he noticed he was over Camilla and not a Pazuzu's Easel artist like he assumed. Looking down at her with a surprised face, a smirking Corvus appeared with Baurs, carrying the unconscious Claudia on her back and Vulp, with the sleeping baby, Merilo, being carried in his tail.

"Good to see you're alive." Pietro said with a smug look on his face as he looked down at Bernard over Camilla, flat on her back.

"Uh!? Well, I- Uhm…" Bernard stammered as his face begun to turn red after looking down at Camilla, whose face was still surprised with his placement over her. "Uhh… Hi? Surprised to see you here?" He said, finally coming up with words to say, albeit nervously and confused.

"...Good to see you too." Camilla replied as her face turned from one of surprise to one of arousal and happiness at seeing her boyfriend alive and well.

_"Oh crap, she's enjoying this..."_ Bernard thought with a nervous look in his eyes as he noticed the flirty look she was giving him, prompting him to stand up off of her and lifting her up back to her feet. "E-everybody alright?" He asked as he looked behind everyone to see the carnage the other wizards did.

"Oh yeah! That was so stress relieving!" Anatoli exclaimed happily as he stood on his ball.

"Why's he so chipper?" Corvus asked as he flew closer to the group.

"He nearly lost his ball again during the fight so he's just enjoying hitting people." Marlene explained.

"Ahhh good to know- Whoa!" Bernard said as he noticed a large contingent of men in yellow and blue armor with symbols for the Fiore Kingdom on their shields and banners approach from out of the woods, prompting the Psycho Circus team to turn around and look.

As the Grand Magic Knights of the royal kingdom arrived, a lone knight had walked out of the army of men and came forward towards the group.

"We are from the Royal Kingdoms army, sent to dispose of the dark guild, Pazuzu's Easel. Are you the team from Psycho Circus that came before us?" The knight said as Bernard spoke up.

"Yeah, that's us and we took care of the situation." Bernard said as he pointed him towards Baurs who was carrying the limp body of Claudia Vanderheem and then towards Vulp who was carrying Merilo. "Other members of her group that was at the party last night are still inside, out like lights." He explained as the knight looked upward at the damaged and derelict building.

"This building... Was it like this before or after your assault?" The knight asked out of curiosity as he examined the outer area of the building.

"Huh? Why does that matter?" Camilla said in response.

"It's for the report we have to file." The knight replied.

"It was like that when we got here." Marlene answered as the knight looked around.

"So you beat these men out here, went inside and defeated the rest?" The knight said as he questioned the Psycho Circus wizards.

"Yeah?" Anatoli said as he sat on his ball.

"Very well. Men! Get inside and apprehend all criminals. Then remove all objects relative to them to be shipped to Era for the Magic Council to dispose of it!" The knight said as he turned towards his men as the soldiers begun to pick up the knocked out Pazuzu's Easel grunts while some moved inside to begin capturing the others that were inside. "We'll be taking care of the clean up then, this will be easier than normal it looks like." The knight said, displaying a rather relieved expression.

"Huh?" Corvus muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bernard asked.

"It's a long storied history of the kingdom cleaning up larger messes than this so it's nice actually... To see a surprisingly small amount of property damage I mean." The knight said casually as he begun to walk away. "We were also told to inform you that the Balsamicos wish to speak with you, Mr. O'Halloran so we will be leaving the return of the child to you as well." He said as he walked away.

"Me?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow as the group looked at him as Claudia was picked up by the magic knights off of Baurs and had placed magic cancelling handcuffs on her as the other knights begun to emerge from the place with Tiza, Tazo and Dolph in tow.

As Dolph passed by in cuffs, he glanced in Marlenes direction, prompting her to stick her forked tongue out at him with a spiteful glare as he was taken away.

"What was that about?" Camilla said as she looked at Marlene.

"I'll explain later... But lets just say this; you're a lucky gal." Marlene said with an earnest smile as she looked at Camilla before looking at Bernard as he was talking with Pietro and Anatoli.

"Huh?" Camilla muttered in confusion as she turned her eyes towards Bernard.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Balsamico Castle, 3:56 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Sitting on his ball with an impatient look on his face, Anatoli sat around next to a closed door in the Balsamico estate with Corvus perched on his head with his talons lightly digging into his head as Vulp casually paced around on the floor.

"Ouch! Get off me, you damn pigeon!" Anatoli complained as he swatted away Corvus from on top of his cranium after the crow dug his feet more into the wizards head.

"Who you calling "pigeon?!" You damn monkey!" Corvus complained back in response to Anatolis name calling.

"Hey!" Camilla said as she approached the others with Marlene walking next to her. "No fighting, this isn't a barn, you dolts!" She said as she folded her arms.

'"Ye-yes, ma'am..." Anatoli and Corvus said in fear of angering Camilla.

"Still in there chatting?" Marlene asked as she looked at the door.

"Yup, where were you two?" Anatoli said as he looked at the girls.

"We were seeing how Pietro was doing. I reapplied more healing salves to his body and then he went to bed for some rest." Marlene explained.

"Then the two of us had a little chat." Camilla said as her eyes glossed over in Marlenes direction as Marlenes face turned red, confusing the chimp-like wizard and the Celestial Spirits. "What have you guys been up to?" She asked.

"Checking on Bernie, he went in there with the old pucker-lips and his daughter after giving them back the baby." Anatoli explained.

"It's been about fifteen minutes since then and we can't hear anything through the walls being thicker than a bowl of oatmeal." Corvus grunted as he stood on the ground with Vulp next to him.

"What are they talking about?" Marlene questioned.

"No clue." Anatoli said as he shrugged his shoulders. As he replied, the doorknob to the room turned slightly as the others turned around to notice that someone approached. Opening the door quickly, the sounds of loud and angry screams echoed at ear shattering decibels as the others were surprised by the insane shouting.

With swift movement, Aceto Balsamico had quickly ran out, whilst carrying her child and shut the door behind her, cancelling out the deafening noise that was coming from the room. Breathing a heavy sigh and turning her head to notice the bewildered Psycho Circus wizards and the Celestial Spirits, she approached them with an exhausted expression.

"Hello, I am sorry you had to hear some of that." Aceto said embarrassed.

"What the hell's going on in there?!" Anatoli said as he stuck his pinkie in his ear to try and get the ringing noise in his head to stop.

"...Do you really want to know?" Aceto said with a tired expression as everyone nodded in response. "I'm sorry, I tried to help but it looks like my father isn't going to budge..." She explained to the confusion of everyone.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Camilla replied.

"Mr. Bernard won't be receiving the payment we originally offered for his services." Aceto said with a regretful expression.

"What?!" Corvus said, drawing everyones attention. "Are you kidding me!?" He said as Vulp looked on wide-eyed.

"What made him change his mind?" Marlene asked.

"Well... There's certain factors involved with my fathers decision making..." Aceto said.

"Like?" Camilla questioned.

"We had surveillance Lacrima active during the raid the Pazuzu's Easel guild did yesterday and looking back at the footage from the Lacrima... We saw Bernard giving them the child and then proceeding to wreck the place to make it look like the battle was worse than what actually happened." Aceto explained.

"Yeah but... They were threatening us while we were stuck!" Anatoli said.

"I know and Bernard mentioned that but my father was angered when he saw the damage to the party room nonetheless." Aceto said. "Plus he said; "you didn't even perform either! You didn't do what we hired you to do!" And stuff like that..." She continued.

_"...Well... Yeah, Bernard didn't do any of the routines with the creatures he had came up with."_ Camilla thought with an embarrassed expression.

"So after that, Mr. Bernard and my father are currently having a shouting match with eachother and I think are on the verge of tearing eachothers throats out..." Aceto said embarrassingly.

"...Do you want me to calm down Bernard?" Camilla said with a raised eyebrow.

"And by "calm down," she means make out wi- Blurgh!" Anatoli said jokingly before Camilla elbowed him in the head to shut him up.

"Thank you, please do- Oh?" Aceto said before the group noticed the door opened behind them and out came Bernard with a disgruntled and angry expression. "...Are you both done?" She asked as the volatile Bernard looked at her.

As the others looked on, Bernard felt a soft sensation hit him in the side of the head as he noticed Count Balsamico threw a throw pillow at him.

"That was for giving my granddaughter to some crazy painters, you jerkwad!" Count Balsamico screamed in an agitated manner as Bernard glared at the small man.

"If I hadn't done that... You'd be worm food, you lemon sucking crone!" Bernard shouted back in frustration.

"Like hell I would give you a cent for causing us so much grief!" Count Balsamico said.

"If it wasn't for me, that baby would've been encased in a bunch of paint and clay!" Bernard shouted.

"Enough of your excuses, just get out of my home!" Count Balsamico said as he slammed the door to the room in Bernards face. Glaring at his friends and Aceto, all of whom begun to look in different directions in an effort not to deal with Bernards incredibly angry state, he proceeded to look at Vulp and Corvus.

"Congrats... You guys don't have to perform today..." Bernard said with a twitch in his eye as Vulp and Corvus looked at eachother.

"Uh-huh..." Corvus said with a nervous tone. "You gonna be alright?" The crow said as the others turned back to look at him.

"Vulp..." Bernard said as he looked at the fox. "Can I ask you a favor to bite off the counts lips?" He said to the surprise of everyone as he asked Vulp to violently maim the count.

"Excuse me! Mr. Bernard!" Aceto said as she tried to calm Bernard down.

"What?!" Bernard shouted with rage in his eyes.

"I know you have a problem with my father but if it's any consolation, I would like to remind you that there won't be any issues with the Magic Council over your actions." Aceto said as the others looked at her.

"Huh?" Anatoli muttered.

"Oh, I know what you're talking about." Camilla said. "Bernard using that old train pass from the royal family and lying to the Magic Council to get jurisdiction on rescuing her and all that stuff with the kidnapping right?" She said as Aceto nodded.

"Correct, I asked for some leniency from the representative we spoke with after Merilo was taken so if anything, at least I can offer you that much." Aceto said as Bernards irritable expression softened as he sighed.

"...Ugh..." Bernard said as he slumped his shoulders. _"Greeaaatt… Back to being "Broke Bernard" and living off Camillas handouts like a_ _doofus..."_ He thought with a defeated attitude.

"One more thing, I am willing to give you all a lift home in a private carriage so you can all reach Hemlock by nightfall." Aceto said as she rocked her baby in her arms.

"That would be nice actually." Camilla said as Aceto proceeded to leave the room to go get assistance for the others as she and Marlene approached Bernard. "You think you'll be alright?" She asked her annoyed boyfriend.

"Before we pack, can we go find the counts bedroom?" Bernard said with his head down. "I want to take a piss on his pillows..." He said as he raised his head with a twitch in his eye, prompting the others to smirk at his bad joke.

"Sorry but no, I kinda want to leave now too." Marlene said as she looked at Camilla. "Anatoli, go help Pietro pack, I'll go get my and Camillas things."

"Awww! Why do I have to mess around with the old timers clothes?!" Anatoli complained.

"Oh just shut up and do it!" Marlene said in response as she pushed him off his ball to get moving.

"Yo Vulp, lets head back to the room we were staying in with the kid. At least one of us can leave a hot dump on a pillow. Hehe." Corvus said with a mischievous smirk as Corvus flew away with Vulp following behind, leaving Camilla and Bernard alone.

"Hope it's a large one..." Bernard said with a bothered expression until he turned his attention to Camilla who was giving him a suspicious look in her eyes. "What I do now?" He asked, expecting something negative to come out of her mouth.

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing. Just thinking about things." Camilla said.

"What kind of "things?"' Bernard questioned.

"Like how my boyfriend managed to encourage the other girl who liked him and somehow managed to still be a good friend to her." Camilla said with a small smile on her face as Bernards eyes widened after realizing what she meant.

"D-did Marlene tell you what happened?" Bernard said with a minor blush on his face.

"Yeah, she did." Camilla said as she noticed Bernards nervous expression. "Oh calm down, I am not angry." She said with a reassuring tone.

"...Really? I've heard most girls frown upon hearing these kinds of things." Bernard said as he scratched his face.

"All you did was give her a hug and told her what she wanted to hear from someone she cared about." Camilla said. "In a way, I'm kinda impressed." She continued.

"Impressed by what?" Bernard said confused.

"Well, for acting like a man. But for also finally calling me your girlfriend. Hehe." Camilla said with a mischievous smirk as Bernards eyes widened.

"I-I didn't use the term "girlfriend!" I just said- I mean, I-" Bernard stammered and struggled to respond to the overly confident young woman.

"See you on the ride home." Camilla said with a wink towards him as she walked away, prompting Bernard to put his hand on his face.

"Today really sucked..." Bernard said to himself.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Carriage Trail, 5:14 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

With the sun going down on the horizon and a horse drawn carriage following a trail with a certain group of Psycho Circus wizards in the back with their luggage, the group proceeded to converse amongst themselves.

"...You know, I'm really regretting doing this now..." Bernard said with a tired expression.

"Hey, don't be such a downer. That baby would have been an art project if it wasn't for what you did." Camilla said as she sat next to Bernard.

"Reward or no reward, you've earned proper experience as a wizard." Pietro said as he sat across from the pair with Marlene sitting next to him as Anatoli stood in the middle, trying to balance on his ball.

"Would've been better if we got some cash from that- whoa!" Anatoli said as he struggled to maintain his composure. "I mean, we aren't charity workers, y'know?" He continued.

"For once, I agree with you." Bernard said as he looked at Anatoli.

"You should agree with me more often! We could have been doing something more worthwhile than coming out to try and entertain nobility!" Anatoli remarked as the others, besides Bernard, rolled their eyes.

"If it wasn't for us, the Magic Council would have never found that child before the dark guild did something horrible to her. It was a worthwhile experience regardless." Camilla explained.

"Easy for you to say..." Bernard said as Camilla turned her head towards him. "You weren't the one who lost a chance at three million Jewels..." He said sullenly as Camilla placed an arm on his shoulder to console him.

"Speaking of money... What day is it?" Pietro said as the others looked at him.

"I think it's a Tuesday- Oh man!" Anatoli said loudly as the others realized.

"The next Ultimate Carnival show is in a few days!" Marlene said loudly as Bernard put his head down at the realization.

"Great... Another night I make no money..." Bernard said with a defeated expression once again.

"Hey, why don't you put your creatures in the show?" Marlene suggested. "You can finally try those routines you worked on."

"Good idea actually." Pietro said in agreeance.

"Not like Bernard will make any money from their involvement but at least his work will be shown to others." Camilla said reassuringly.

"Man!" Anatoli complained. "We should have brought home one of those sculptures you mentioned the crazy art chick had." He said as he looked at Bernard. "More monsters could have put more crazy stuff to entertain people for the show! Like a floating candle wax creature that breathes fire or a big golem made of clay!"

"He already has a golem, remember?" Marlene said in response to Anatolis suggestion.

"And why a firebreather?" Camilla questioned.

"I thought Nole and Andy were working on a fire breathing act?" Pietro said.

"Yeah but it would look cooler from a monster that looks like a candle or something!" Anatoli retorted.

As the others talked amongst themselves, Bernard sat in the carriage, staring into space as he was lost in thought.

_"...More creatures... More ideas... Claudia had the numbers advantage..." _Bernard thought in his head as he was beginning to form ideas. _"Oh holy hell... I'm starting to agree with Anatoli on things..."_ He thought with sweat dripping down his face at a bizarre realization.

* * *

**And with that, the day is saved! Thanks to- Oh wait... Nevermind. Bernard didn't get a cent for it. With Pazuzu's Easel defeated and the Magic Council having arrested the members of the artists guild, all seemed well for our heroes but fate had other plans. Thanks to surveillance Lacrima that revealed the full extent of Bernards plan to the Balsamicos, the count was royally angered by his actions and forgoes the deal between Bernard and the family, leaving him with no money in his pockets. With the next Ultimate Carnival around the corner, the group prepares for another show! But what mind be running through Bernards mind after the battle with Claudia and Anatoli's suggestion. Who knows? I don't, I'm just a narrator! Stay tuned for more! **

**Authors Note: (Finally. Finished. With. This. Arc! Jeez, this was a long one... Welp, until next time folks and I will leave you with one spoiler for what happens in the next story arc: A character from the main series makes a long awaited return to the FT universe. Who is it? The answer, may surprise you. :) **


	44. Chapter 44

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guildhall, 11:55 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

With a roaring crowd of happy fans screaming from the bleachers, the Psycho Circus' tri-weekly "Ultimate Carnival" performance was coming to a close as Corvus flew around, close to the ceiling of the big top of the guildhall. Standing in the center, with the spotlight pointed directly at him, was Chester Woodstock, dressed in his usual ringmaster uniform.

"Ladies and Gentleman! As the night draws to a close, I have only one simple question to give you!" Chester asked of the crowd as he extended his arm, allowing Corvus to fly down and perch onto it. "Has the magic of the great Psycho Circus guild excited you once again?!" He asked.

'"Yeeahh!"' The audience screamed in agreeance.

"Well then, all I have left to say is... Good night to you all! And see you next time under the big top!" Chester exclaimed as Corvus flew up off his arm and proceeded to spark up, unleashed bolts of his red and white lightning that exploded into makeshift fireworks, dazzling the crowd as they begun to get up from their seats.

Perching back onto Chesters arm, the spotlight went out over him as he walked to the back area where the other members of the guild were. As he walked in, a cocky smirk on his face, Corvus proceeded to peck him in the side of the head, knocking off his top hat.

"Ouch!" Chester exclaimed angrily as Corvus flew up into the air as the puppeteer looked at the crow with annoyance. "What was that for?!" He exclaimed.

"For trying to drown me in a water tank!" Corvus replied.

"That was weeks ago!" Chester complained as the seven foot tall Gigantia and the duct taped mime Silencio had walked over to the leader of their small group.

"Hey, calm down, Chester." Gigantia said as she looked at Chester with Silencio putting his hand on his shoulder to stop him from fighting the crow.

"Ugh, fine. Matter of fact, I'm in too much of a good mood to be fighting poultry." Chester said as he rolled his eyes as he moved Silencios hand off his shoulder.

"Who you calling "poultry?!"' Corvus angrily exclaimed in response as he begun to spark up until he felt the feeling of a flat wooden board lightly hit him as he turned around to notice Camilla, holding a clipboard and dressed in a tight blue V-neck shirt with blue jean-like shorts that exposed much of her legs, heeled open toed shoes and her hair tied back in a long ponytail, had approached the Celestial Spirit.

"No fighting, either of you." Camilla said as she looked at Corvus and Chester, with Marlene and Pietro walking up to the group.

"Hey, Gigantia. Great job out there." Marlene said with a smile towards Gigantia.

"I should be thanking you, you were practically carrying me through the whole dance routine." Gigantia said with an earnest expression.

"You too, Silencio. That was a great performance for your Invisible-Make Magic to have the audience play "invisible golf."' Marlene said as she looked at Silencio, prompting the mime to make an embarrassed expression from the praise and turn away, hiding his face.

"Fine job out there, Chester." Pietro said casually to the ringmaster, prompting a smile full of cockiness to form on his face.

"Oh? Finally accepting me as the great ringleader of the show? I know, all my hard work entertaining the crowd as the presenter has paid off wondrously." Chester said with an overconfident look as the others looked at him with embarrassment.

"I think someone's getting a big head, right?" Marlene whispered towards Camilla as the S-class wizard nodded in agreeance.

"Hey! Where's my praise!?" Corvus exclaimed as the group looked towards him as Vulp and Baurs had walked over to him.

"I think you mean "our" praise." Baurs said as Vulp nodded in agreeance.

"You guys did great for your first time entertaining a crowd." Camilla said with a smile to the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental.

"Thank you." Baurs said casually as Vulp and Corvus both gained smiles from the compliments.

"Frankly, I think you only did well because the audience thought you were my pets." Chester said as the creatures looked at him with frustration. "Speaking of which, where is the "king of douchebags?"' He asked as the others took offense to his comment.

"Hey, he has a name you know…" Marlene said with annoyance.

"Are you saying he doesn't act like a douche?" Chester said as Pietro, Camilla and Marlene looked at eachother for a half second as Vulp, Corvus and Baurs looked at the Psycho Circus wizards.

"...Well..." Camilla said as she scratched the back of her head.

"...Fair point..." Marlene muttered.

"Granted, he needs to work on his grouchiness but I wouldn't use such an insult to describe him overall." Pietro said with his hands in his pockets.

"Regardless, where is he?" Chester said as he looked around the back area as he saw the other members of the guild getting changed and relaxing at the tables from completion of their performances for the show until he spotted a lone table in the back that had whom he was looking for. _"There you are... Time to rub it in his face..."_ He thought with a grin of superiority forming as he walked over to the table.

"Hey!" Camilla said aloud as she followed after Chester with the others following behind as Chester approached the individual at the table.

Sitting at the table, hunched over as he looked down at a small black book with a pen, was Bernard. Dressed with his usual beanie with a brown t-shirt and black baggy pants with black shoes, he was staring at the book and facing away from the group of people approaching him from behind.

"Did you hear all the people out there? Cheering for me and the show we put on?" Chester said with a cocky expression. "Gotta say, it must be so hard to be the one person in the entire guild who thinks he is so important as to not actively participate in the show and hide in the back area doing nothing the whole time." He said mockingly as Bernard continued to stare at the table. As he talked, Pietro approached Camilla.

"Camilla, I thought these two were done having fights?" Pietro asked as Gigantia approached.

"I can slightly answer that... Chester still views Bernard as his main rival for "the star" of the guild." Gigantia said as she looked at Camilla and Pietro. "When we left on jobs, Chester was working up new ideas for puppets to use with his magic so he could finally face you again by the way Camilla." She said to the S-class wizard who rolled her eyes in response.

"Great..." Camilla said unenthusiastically.

"Did you know I have built three brand new puppets to use at my disposal?" Chester said aloud as Bernard still wasn't facing him. "I saw you had picked up one new monster with that big lizard made of rocks but it looks like the advantage is still in my court when it comes to fighting ability and overall talent for performing in a "performers guild."' He said with a continually mocking tone.

"Knock it off!" Corvus said with an aggravated tone as Camilla stopped the crow from going forward.

"Hold on... Look." Camilla said as she stopped the Celestial Spirit as she noticed Bernard was still not moving.

"Hey! Are you even listening!?" Chester said as the other members of the guild noticed that Bernard was continuing to ignore Chester. As he raised his voice, Bernard looked up and turned around as he noticed everyone was staring at him and then shifted his eyes to look at the annoyed face on Chester.

"...When did you get here?" Bernard said with an honest tone, prompting everyone to look at him with disbelief.

_'"Did he not even notice Chester was here?!"'_ The collective of all the Psycho Circus wizards thought simultaneously.

"...What?!" Chester exclaimed loudly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his marionette cross in frustration.

"I didn't write you anything for the show so I forgot you showed up." Bernard said as he turned back around. _"That outta piss him off... Hehehe."_ He thought with a chuckle as he managed to smirk.

"Pff…" Camilla snorted as she started to laugh with some of the members of the guild like Pietro and Marlene begun to chuckle as well.

"Why you little-" Chester said threateningly until the sound of glass bottles clanking entered the room and prompted everyone to turn their heads.

"Your alcohol carrying savior has arrived!" Anatoli said as he was carrying six large bottles of booze in his hands.

"Guess now that everyone is gone, it's time for the traditional afterparty in town." Pietro said as the other members of the guild cheered loudly in response as they all started to head into Hemlock to party.

"Chester- Yeouch!... Ugh, let's go. You need to clear your head." Silencio said, after ripping off his duct tape over his mouth and hurting himself from the sensation to speak. Putting his hand once again on Chesters shoulder, Chester took a deep breath and put away his marionette cross.

"Fine... I could use a drink." Chester said as he walked away with Silencio.

"See you guys in town. Sorry about him too." Gigantia said as she followed her teammates out of the guild.

"Shall we get going as well?" Pietro said as he looked at Marlene, Camilla, Anatoli and Bernard as the creatures approached Bernard.

"Yeah, let's go have some fun." Marlene said.

"Woo!" Anatoli screamed in delight as he floated away on his ball with Pietro walking behind him with Marlene following as well.

"You ready to go?" Camilla said as she looked over at Bernard as the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental returned back into his body.

"Nah, I'll just stay here and clean- Ahh!" Bernard said until he was grabbed by the collar of his shirt and was yanked out of his seat at the table.

"Oh no you don't." Camilla said with a troubled expression as Marlene, Pietro and Anatoli looked on. "I'm not letting you sit around in the guild all night when your work is done for awhile and there are people who want to hang out with you so you're coming along and having some fun." She said in a commanding tone as Bernard struggled to get out her grasp as she dragged him.

"Oh come on! This place is going to be a mess tomorrow and I don't want to deal with cleaning it then!" Bernard complained as he was still being pulled by Camilla on the floor.

"And it doesn't matter if you clean it up now or later." Pietro said as he looked at Bernard.

"Come on! Let's drown in the waves of rum!" Anatoli said as he started to chug an entire bottle from the large stack of the liquor bottles in his arms.

"We may want to start before Anatoli drinks them all and makes an even bigger mess in here." Camilla said as she looked at Anatoli continue to down the bottle he was drinking. "And you are coming too... Or else." She said as she looked back at Bernard with a stern look in her eyes.

"...Or else what?" Bernard said as he begun to sweat as she bent down and whispered something in his ear. "Okay! Let's go!" He said nervously as he quickly jumped up from the ground and walked past the others.

"What did you tell him?" Marlene said with interest as Pietro and Anatoli followed behind Bernard, to keep an eye on him.

"This." Camilla said with a smirk as she whispered in Marlenes ear. After backing away, Marlene blushed profusely and looked at her with surprise.

"...Wow... You'd do that to him?" Marlene said with surprise.

"He'll be annoyed for only a little bit... But he'll like it soon after. Hehehe." Camilla said with a smirk as she and Marlene left the guildhall.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tenthouse, 8:10 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Laying back on his bed with Camilla, who was dressed in a green tank top and brown shorts and with her hair down, as she clung to him in her sleep. Bernard, dressed in a black t-shirt and white shorts, was staring at the ceiling as he clutched at his head with a disgruntled look on his face.

_"I said I didn't want to drink too much and freaking Anatoli wanted to have a chugging contest... Least I won... Ten bottles later... Ugh."_ Bernard thought with a headache. _"I'm surprised I have a better constitution for alcohol then most... My body is like a twig from my pacemaker and yet I can handle knocking back nearly a dozen bottles..." _He thought as he scratched his head as he tried to ignore the splitting feeling in his skull.

Shifting his head downward, he looked at Camilla as she was laying on his chest as she nuzzled her face against his body. Prompting him to blush, he quickly turned his head away from his beautiful girlfriend and roommate.

_"...Does she have to grind on me every time I wake up?" _Bernard thought with embarrassment as he felt Camilla start to rub her body against his. "Guh! Faahh…" He mumbled as Camilla tightened her embrace around his waist as she continued to rub herself against Bernard.

As she continued to nuzzle herself against his body, Bernard looked over at the nightstand next to the bed as he noticed something familiar. Reaching over with his right hand, Bernard had picked up his small black book that he was looking over the night prior before he went out partying with the Psycho Circus guild.

_"That jackoff, Chester, said he had made three new puppets for his arsenal... If he wasn't ringmaster for the show, I could come up with a routine for whatever he has but I'd rather die than have a conversation with that guy... Lucky he doesn't need my help with doing his bit for the show..." _Bernard thought as he lifted up his book and begun to skim through it in his right hand.

"Hmmm..." Camilla muttered in her sleep as Bernard noticed her stirring. Wanting to let her sleep longer, Bernard moved his left arm around her waist in a light hug, gently rubbing her backside with his hand. "Ahhh…" She exclaimed contently as she went back to laying on him, a smile forming on her face as she enjoyed using him as a pillow.

_"Can't say I never did anything for you besides guild work now, huh?" _Bernard thought as he looked down at Camilla while he comforted her in her sleep before turning his attention back to his book. _"Okay... That one idea could work and that one would be interesting too because people haven't seen one of those before but I'm not sure where to find one." _He thought with a contemplative expression forming.

Before he could continue his internal string of thoughts, a feminine hand reached upwards from below and swiped the book out of his palm. Upon seeing this, Bernard gazed downward to see the face of a now awake Camilla, sporting a rather disappointed expression, looking him in the eyes.

"...It's the day after the show and we're all on break, do you seriously have to spoil a good moment like this to look at your little book?" Camilla said as she readjusted herself to be looming over Bernard, face to face with him as his head was still on the pillow.

"Can you blame me? After all the drinking last night, I needed to make sure I had brain cells still left in my head." Bernard replied back.

"Well it's nice to see you still have a sense of humor so you have to be fine." Camilla said as her disappointed expression changed into a more calmer one with a smile. "Especially since you have enough brainpower to give me a rub... Hehehe." She said with a chuckle as she tilted her head back to see Bernards hand on her lower back.

"Um?! Damn it, were you awake that whole time?!" Bernard exclaimed in annoyance as he removed his hand from her while Camilla was still straddling him.

"So what are you working on now?" Camilla said as she got off of Bernard and sat with her legs off the bed, starting to look at some of the newer entries in Bernards book.

"What the- Hey! Don't look at that!" Bernard said as he sat up and tried to get his book out of Camillas hands but she put her hand up to keep him away so she could continue to read his writings.

"Whoa... What is all this?" Camilla said as she turned her head towards Bernard, a look of concern forming on his face. "What's with these little drawings you have in here, what are they?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's... Ideas..." Bernard said with some embarrassment as he shifted himself to sit next to her with his legs off the bed.

"These look like your normal routine ideas but it's for some of the pets you have and some monsters I don't recognize." Camilla said as she handed the book back to Bernard.

"Yeah, that's what they are..." Bernard said as he grabbed his book back and put it on the nightstand.

"Soooo... Why are you coming up with ideas for stuff you don't-... Ohhhh… I get it now." Camilla said until she realized what Bernard was thinking as a sly expression was forming on her face, prompting Bernards eye to twitch with bother.

"Don't say it..." Bernard muttered as he put his hand on his face.

"You're getting interested in finding more pets to have at your disposal so you could use them in the show." Camilla said as she noted Bernards troubled face.

"...I hate the fact Anatoli had a good idea for once..." Bernard said as he scratched his head.

"Happens every once in awhile. Hehehe." Camilla joked as she looked at Bernard. "Granted, his way of saying that you should find more pets was a bit dimly presented with the "let's lob off his leg and fill a prosthetic with starfish" bit." She continued.

"I'm handicapped enough, thank you very much." Bernard said as he poked against his Lacrima pacemaker with his finger. "But there's just one problem before I could even begin to find any more monsters."

"Containing them?" Camilla answered.

"Contai- Huh? Yeah, actually..." Bernard replied until he noticed that Camilla guessed correctly.

"Score one for me!" Camilla exclaimed with personal satisfaction over her accuracy.

"Yeah, uh-huh..." Bernard said sarcastically. "Anyway, yeah. Corvus and the others living inside my Lacrima has been pure luck at this point and they just happened to be compatible. If I were to find other monsters, I would need some other way to keep them around." He continued.

"Any ideas?" Camilla questioned.

"Not really... I'm barely even a wizard so it's not like I could learn a spell or anything to seal off something." Bernard said as he continued to think.

"And it's not like I can just lock a bunch of monsters in my barriers. My boxes are strong but they do have limits." Camilla said. "Also, you gotta stop with those "barely a wizard" comments. After everything that's happened, you are practically one of us now." She said with a serious tone as she caught Bernards attention.

"Kinda hard to agree with that notion when my only magical feat is hording mystical monsters inside my body." Bernard retorted as Camilla stood up from the bed, facing him as he looked up at her.

"Then if you really want to learn some kind of legitimate spells, why don't you go in the archive in the guild?" Camilla said.

"Yeah, I'll- wait... We still have one?" Bernard said until he questioned Camilla back, confused.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't we?" Camilla said with surprise.

"I've never cleaned it." Bernard replied.

"Well, Master Barnum uses his spatial magic to alter the inside of the guild all the time. Usually he makes the rooms he doesn't have any need for at the moment disappear until someone needs them." Camilla said as she scratched her face with her finger.

"I'm surprised he's never done that for the bathroom as a sick joke..." Bernard said as he gave another criticizing comment about his fathers unfunny antics.

"I think your father wouldn't be that cruel for a joke." Camilla said.

_"The guy wants his spell-less, handicapped, ne'er-do-well of a son, who barely counts as an actual wizard, to be the guildmaster of his guild of magical performers... And making a bathroom disappear sounds like the most "cruel" thing you think my old man can think of?" _Bernard thought with a raised eyebrow as he looked at Camilla.

"Hey, don't give me that look." Camilla said back as she noticed Bernards judging gaze.

"Think you can go ask the old clown if he can open the archive for me to look around at some old books of spells and whatnot?" Bernard asked as Camilla looked at him a raised eyebrow of her own.

"Why don't you just ask him yourself?" Camilla replied.

"He's the last person I want to talk to considering the topics that will come up in the conversation..." Bernard said as he stood up from the bed and proceeded to walk to the changing curtain to get dressed.

"Have you even talked to him since you came back?" Camilla asked.

"Nope. He normally just says some comment out loud in my vicinity but I haven't said two words to the guy... And I don't plan on talking to him either." Bernard replied.

"Hmmm..." Camilla mumbled to herself with a concerned tone as she watched Bernard go behind the changing curtain.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guildhall, 11:03 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Following several hours of cleaning the inside of the guildhall after the prior nights show, the various members of the Psycho Circus guild had arrived as Camilla was propping up the job requests on the board for the wizards to find work. As she did this, she noticed a peculiar piece of paper amongst the pile, as she was putting up the fliers, that had a noticeably large red S marker on it, signifying an S-class quest.

"Hey, is that what I think it is?" Anatoli said as he approached with Harriet, the large and bearded sister of Pietro, and the conjoined twins, Nole and Andy overhearing from a nearby table.

"An S-class quest? We don't see those every day in here." Harriet said as she stood up and walked over to Camilla with some of the members of the guild appearing nearby.

"Only problem with being a lesser known guild." Nole said.

"Never getting the larger grade quests with higher payouts." Andy said as Camilla looked at the S-class flier.

"This is definitely a new quest, some of the fliers I have been putting up lately have been some older ones no one has taken yet." Camilla said as she looked at the S-class quest logo on the paper.

"Most of the time we get these, either you have already left to do it or- Blerguh!" Anatoli said until the sudden feeling of a hand made of hair covered his mouth, coming from Harriets large prehensile beard, to stop him from completing his sentence. Looking at the small crowd of Psycho Circus wizards, all of the female members in the group, with Camilla and Harriet included, were giving Anatoli a harsh glare.

'"We don't speak his name in the guild."' The collective of the guilds female wizards said aloud, as Anatoli grabbed Harriets beard hand and took it off his mouth.

"Okay! Okay!... Usually these quests are gone by now because Camilla takes the job already or... "you know who" comes by and takes it." Anatoli said, being cautious.

"Thankfully he isn't around..." Harriet said with a shiver as her beard hair cringed in response. "So Camilla, you taking the job?" Harriet asked of the S-class wizard who was looking at the paper with an unsure expression.

"I don't know." Camilla said as she looked over the paper.

"What's the job for?" Nole asked.

"I was going to ask that!" Andy screamed at his conjoined twin.

"Well I asked first!" Nole angrily replied.

"Shut up you two!" Camilla screamed back as the pair stopped fighting upon hearing her yell. "It says; "Please help lift our haunted curse from the oldest building in our town. Destination: Oak Town. Payment on completion: 360,000 Jewels."' She said as she read out the flier, prompting the other wizards to look at eachother confused.

"360,000? That's it?" Anatoli said with surprise.

"For an S-class quest, that's remarkably cheap for being considered dangerous enough to be ranked that highly." Harriet said with concern.

"Has to be a prank or something." Andy said.

"Or the poster is short on funds." Nole said.

"Some quests change prices based on how long they have been active, we just got the quest today so it might be an old one and the request sender might be running low on money to place it higher, regardless of the marker." Camilla said, trying to theorize the nature of the request.

"You gonna take it?" Harriet asked as Camilla continued to look at the flier.

"Oak Town..." Andy said.

"...Oak Town?" Nole said.

'"Why does that sound familiar?"' The conjoined twins said in unison.

Meanwhile, downstairs from the big top, was the guild archive room of Psycho Circus. Strung amongst the room and packed with dust in the air, books upon books were held on shelves with ladders laying against the walls. Sitting at a table as his beastly allies were looking around at the library, Bernard was skimming over a series of open texts.

"Fire spells... Water magic... A spell for turning frogs into bread? Who the hell needs an ability like that?!" Bernard complained as he continued to look at the spell books as Vulp used his tail, transformed into hairy hands, to pick up some of the books off the floor as Baurs stood around, looking at Bernard read.

"Achoo!" Corvus sneezed as he flew above the group. "For the love of all that is holy, why is this room so dusty?!" The crow bellowed in annoyance.

"Because my father likes to use his magic to make rooms in the guildhall disappear when they aren't needed and I doubt anyone has needed this room in a good while so now that we are here- Achoo!" Bernard explained until some dust got under his nostrils and he sneezed.

"Ugh... Why are we here? You didn't tell us why yet." Corvus asked with a wing over his beak as Baurs and Vulp looked at Bernard, curious for an answer as Bernard wiped his nose on his arm.

"I'm looking for any kind of spell in these books that could potentially allow me to seal monsters somehow..." Bernard said as he continued to scan the books with his eyes.

"Huh?" Corvus grunted in confusion as Vulp and Baurs looked at eachother with similar confusion. "Why are you looking up containment spells?" The crow asked as Bernard closed the book in front of him and proceeded to turn his attention towards the Celestial Spirits and the Earth Elemental.

"If you want the truth, okay then. I... Have been thinking over what Anatoli suggested a number of days ago." Bernard said as he took his beanie off and scratched his head. "Having you guys participate in the shows now, it gave me a bit of an idea..." He continued.

"And that would be?" Baurs asked.

"Maybe... It could be interesting for the show to have more creatures as additional attractions to spruce things up..." Bernard said as he put his beanie back on his head. "Only issue with that is... How the hell are we going to do that?" He said as he looked at the creatures.

"Whoa whoa whoa… Are you saying monkey boy had a decent idea for once?" Corvus said in surprise at Bernards rather weird agreeance with Anatoli.

"He's a odd guy but even I can admit, it might not be such a bad idea." Bernard said with crossed arms. "But like I said, how the hell can we pull that off?" He said with an annoyed face.

"Well this is definitely different than what we were expecting. You learning magic and becoming a legitimate wizard and member of your families guild." Baurs said with interest as Vulp and Corvus made faces filled with optimistic enthusiasm.

"I wouldn't say that. I'm still not a wizard. I'm still not a member of Psycho Circus and as for learning magic... I'm having zero luck with that." Bernard said as he turned around, back to the books. "Besides... I'm still on "probation" and junk..." He continued as Vulp and Corvus' expression turned from optimistic to sullen as Baurs turned her head and noticed their faces.

"Something wrong?" Baurs said quietly as Vulp and Corvus looked the large rock lizard.

"It's... Complicated..." Corvus said as he rubbed the back of his neck with his wing as Vulps ears pointed downward in a depressed manner.

"Damn it! This is the third book of spells I've skimmed through and I still can't find a spell that can seal a monster somehow!" Bernard said as he stood back up.

"Why don't you just seal them inside your Lacrima like you do with us?" Corvus asked as he flew over to the table.

"It's not as simple as that. You, Vulp and Baurs are very specific cases and Formosa... Well that one still disturbs me as to how that works..." Bernard said as he looked at Corvus.

"We would need a lot of cages." Baurs said as Bernard and Corvus put their hand and wing on their faces, respectively, in annoyance.

"Yeah and maybe bait or something..." Bernard said as he shook his head. "But all of that costs money and it's money I don't have at the moment." He said with agitation.

As they continued to talk in the dusty archive, the group turned their heads as they noticed the door up the stairs had opened as Camilla proceeded to enter.

"Hey." Camilla said casually as the group looked at her.

"Something wrong?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, no... Not something wrong but..." Camilla said as she pulled out the S-class flier from upstairs.

"Nole and Andy didn't clog a toilet again with their disturbingly large turds, did they?" Bernard said with an unimpressed expression as the creatures made disturbed faces after he said that.

"What? No. Something else." Camilla said as she scratched her head. "Hey, Bernard...?" She said as she hardened her expression.

"Yeah?" Bernard said with confusion.

"I want to make a deal." Camilla replied as the others looked at her with surprise.

"...Huh?" Bernard mumbled.

* * *

**Oh? Oh? Oh? What do we have here? Well, it seems after all that hooplah with the artists and the Balsamicos, it was back to the normal guild stuff at Psycho Circus... Until the end. With the recent Ultimate Carnival show over and Bernard having come inspired to figuring out how to come up with another way to get access to monsters, he searched around in a series of spell books to find a way to seal monsters but has come up short but Camilla appeared to give him a deal of some kind. What is this deal? Does it have something to do with this S-class quest? Out of the fire and into the frying pan, see you next time on Menagerie!**

**Authors note: (Before you ask, Chester wasn't the returning character but within this chapter, I dropped a hint as to who the character was within the chapter. I'll leave you all to figure out the hint :P)**


	45. Chapter 45

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hemlock, 11:54 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Setting up her four wheeled Magi-cycle for a ride, Camilla put on a black collared coat on her upper body as she rolled out her bike towards the gate of the guild. As she walked along the way, she turned around and noticed Marlene and Pietro arrive to see her.

"So you're going on the job in Oak Town?" Marlene said with curiosity.

"Yup, making the drive is going to be a piece of cake on this bad boy." Camilla said as she patted the seat on the Magi-cycle with her hand.

"And are you sure about bringing Lil Bern with you by himself?" Pietro asked out of intrigue as he scratched at his chin as Camilla looked at him with a concerned face. "It's an S-class quest regardless and to see you and him just by yourselves on a job of this level..." He continued.

"I know, I know." Camilla said as she attached the SE plug of the Magi-cycle to her right wrist as she sat on the bike and proceeded to pump it with her magic, revving the handle.

"Dang this thing is cool." Marlene said as she looked at Camillas Magi-cycle.

"And that's the reason I bought it." Camilla said with a smile in response.

"Didn't Anatoli beat you in that race on his ball when you first got it awhile ago?" Marlene asked as Camilla put her hand on her face.

"Don't remind me, please... I want to scrub that memory from my brain." Camilla said annoyed.

"Too bad for him that beating you in a race doesn't make him S-class. Hehehe." Pietro joked as the girls smirked in response. "But like I said, is it really a good idea to go alone with Lil Bern on a job like this?" He questioned.

"I already told him about the job and he is coming along with me, just us. And his pets, of course." Camilla said. _"I... Best not say anything else for now..."_ She thought as she looked away from her friends.

Hearing footsteps approaching, the trio looked back to notice Anatoli, approaching on his rolling ball, and next to him on foot was Bernard. Looking at Bernard with a level of surprise in their eyes, Pietro and Marlene were taken back by the sight of Bernard with a wide smile and a positive attitude emanating from him.

"Uhh…" Marlene muttered as she looked at Bernard as Camilla rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Is something wrong?" Pietro said with a raised eyebrow.

"He's been like this for almost an hour!" Anatoli exclaimed with confusion.

"Oh I'm fine. Totally fine! Hehehe." Bernard said with a smirk full of happiness. As he finished chuckling, Pietro glanced at Camilla and noticed her sighing as she continued to rev up her Magi-cycle.

"Hey, Bernard." Camilla said as she sat on her bike as Bernard looked at her.

"Yeesss?" Bernard humorlessly said with a smirk as he looked at his girlfriend with the others still disturbed by his mannerisms.

"Your slime monster, Formosa, it has a speed form or something right?" Camilla asked as Bernard nodded with the same smile on his face. _"I'm going to slap that dumb smirk off his face if he keeps this up!" _She thought with agitation forming on her face as she looked at him. "Mind bringing it out? I want to race it."

"Oh?" Pietro muttered.

"You guys are going to race all the way to Oak Town?" Marlene questioned.

"300 Jewel on Camilla!" Anatoli jokingly said out loud as Bernard pressed on his Lacrima pacemaker as the slime monster Formosa had arrive from out of his body.

"Formosa, speed form." Bernard commanded as he pointed his fingers at Formosa, transferring energy into the massive beast as its fluid body begun to shift down from its spiked golem-like form into a large puddle-like ooze with its green eyes and a pair of spikes on top of it. As it shifted around, Bernard proceeded to climb on top of Formosa and held onto both of the spikes like a pair of handlebars.

"Okay, Oak Town is southwest from Hemlock so we'll head that way along the trail out of town. First one there wins." Camilla said as she revved up her bike once more as she continued to pump more energy into the SE plug.

"This a part of what we talk about?" Bernard said with a cocky smirk as Camillas eye twitched.

"No..." Camilla said with annoyance as she proceeded to drive off on the bike.

"Hey! No headstarts!" Bernard exclaimed as Formosa proceeded to speed up on the ground and give chase, leaving behind the others.

_'"What was up with him?"' _Anatoli, Marlene and Pietro thought simultaneously with continued bewilderment.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Oak Town, 6:17 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Situated on a hill in southwest Fiore as the sun was starting to go down was Oak Town, an old castle town nearby from lush forests, several mountains and with a river flowing nearby from it. Consisting predominantly of stone buildings from a bygone era, a majority of which looked like small castles, the town appeared to look like it was stuck in time.

Arriving at the entrance to the town was Camilla and Bernard, each riding their different modes of transportation, with Bernard managing to reach the way into the town before Camilla.

"Ha! Yes!" Bernard exclaimed in joy as he jumped off of Formosas speed form and had his arms raised in the air in a celebratory fashion with massive droplets of sweat dripping off of his face.

"...Dang it..." Camilla said quietly with agitation as she wiped her forehead of sweat from using her magical power to power her bike.

"Guess we know who's faster! My slime thing versus your bike!" Bernard said with glee as Camilla rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, ha ha." Camilla said sarcastically. _"Note to self; go all out on pouring in magical energy into the bike or you'll never win a race..."_ She thought with annoyance at her lack of trying harder with her bike.

"Boo... Yah! Boo... Yah!" Bernard exclaimed with joy as Camilla walked away from him celebrating like a dork over his victory in their little race, Formosa returning into his body at the same time as Bernard danced around.

"Oh knock it off already!" Camilla exclaimed as she turned to look at Bernard continuing to smirk.

"Excuse me?" Said a random voice of an elderly individual as Camilla and Bernard stopped and turned to the side to see someone had approached them.

A small man with a balding gray spiky hair style and a small moustache in a gray suit and black tie with round sunglasses had appeared near the pair as they looked down at him.

"Hello there, I am Mr. Zant. I am the mayor of Oak Town." Zant said with a calm attitude as he looked at the pair.

"Uhhh? Hi?" Bernard said, unsure of how else to respond.

"Are you the one who sent this request?" Camilla said as she took out the S-class quest flier and showed it to Zant.

"Ahh just as I thought, you are both wizards who have come for the job request the town put out." Zant said.

_"The entire town put out this quest?"_ Bernard thought with a raised eyebrow.

"Please, come with me to my office, I'll explain there." Zant said as he walked away with Camilla and Bernard looking at eachother with concern.

After walking through the town and reaching the home office of the mayor of the town, Bernard and Camilla sat in chairs in front of his desk and listening to the story behind the job request.

"So this request is to get rid of some weird ghost stuff happening at the castle at the top of the town?" Bernard said.

"Correct." Zant replied.

"What building is this?" Camilla said with interest.

"...Are you aware of Oak Towns prior history from around a decade ago?" Zant said as he bent forward over his desk towards the pair.

"Not really. Refresh my memory?" Camilla said as she looked at Bernard.

"Oak Town... Former home of the once largest and strongest guild in Fiore; Phantom Lord." Bernard said towards Camilla.

"Oh yeah, I remember them... Their guild master went nuts right?" Camilla said as she talked to Bernard.

"Incredibly insane, he had built this giant robot of sorts out of one of the guild halls and nearly destroyed Magnolia just to destroy the Fairy Tail guild I heard." Bernard said as the two gossiped.

"Uhm… Could we please not?" Zant said as he caught back the Psycho Circus pairs attention. "To be completely honest, I have heard enough stories of Phantom Lords downward spiral and frankly, it's brought enough shame to our town given the fact we have housed them for years as one of their many satellite guild hall locations..." Zant said with a tone that sounded like it was growing with depression.

"Oh uh... Sorry, didn't realize we hit a nerve." Camilla said with an apologetic tone.

"It's alright... It's just... Let me get back to business. At the top of the town, the largest building in Oak Town lies there; the former home of the Phantom Lord guild." Zant explained. "For the last five or six years, I have been trying to get projects to tear down the guildhall to revitalize the town to get rid of the Phantom Lord image that has loomed over the town since the disbandment of that guild." He continued.

"...And this "ghost" problem at the guildhall is keeping you from doing that?" Bernard questioned.

"Precisely... I want to fix up my town and clean up this place, make it better and bring in more commerce, add improvements." Zant said with a serious expression that caught Bernards attention. "But the issue is that guildhall has become a living embodiment of my nightmares and after sending as many wizards as I can over the years from a bunch of other guilds, I still haven't found a single bit of success with ridding that guildhall from my town!" He said as he slammed his hand down on the desk, startling Camilla and Bernard.

"Hey, calm down... Can I ask a question?" Camilla said as she started to become serious. "You said you sent other wizards and they failed to do the job you needed. Any ideas as to why they failed?" She asked as Zant bit down on his lip.

"I do not know... As they all never came back from going in there..." Zant said with a serious expression as he scratched his head with Bernard and Camillas eyes widening.

"...You... Are you serious?" Bernard said with shock as Camilla looked with a similar level of surprise.

"As I said... This request has been shuffled around for years and when I originally posted it, it was 4 million Jewels..." Zant said as he put his hands over his eyes in shame. "I've had to spend taxpayer money from the people of Oak Town towards this job and I have lowered it over and over again... The S-class marker I thought would get someone strong enough to handle it but still nothing..." He continued.

Upon seeing this display by the mayor, Bernard made a face of concern before glancing over at Camilla. Looking at her expression, she made a face that looked as if she was telling Bernard not to go through with the job as he swallowed spit as he begun to think.

_"...How difficult can this job really be? It's just a ghost haunting a building but... If people have died just trying to do this, is it worth it...? Wait... A ghost..." _Bernard thought as he started to think it over as he looked at the mayor. "How much has the job declined to?" He questioned as Camilla looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"It's only 360,000 Jewels... I know, it's not much but-" Zant said before Bernard spoke up.

"I'll do it..." Bernard said with a serious tone as Camilla and Zant looked at him with surprise.

"Wha-what?" Camilla said.

"Really?! You'll help?!" Zant exclaimed as he stood up from his desk.

"Yes. I'll help you with your problem. I just need some specifics for the job." Bernard said as he stood up from the chair.

"Yes! Anything!" Zant said in a hysterical fashion.

As she was still sitting, Camilla clutched tightly at the arms of the chair she was in as Bernard and Zant talked, showing signs of worry forming within her.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Boarding House, 8:14 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Nightfall had arrived in Oak Town as Camilla and Bernard, along with the luggage that they brought and Camillas Magi-cycle on the side of the building, had set themselves up in a small room in a boarding house for the evening. Within the small room they were in, Bernard and Camilla sat apart from eachother on two separate small beds.

"...Are you sure?" Camilla said as she sat with her legs off the side of the bed as she looked at her boyfriend.

"Huh?" Bernard remarked as he laid back on the bed. "Sure about what?" He questioned.

"You know what I mean... The job at the old Phantom Lord guildhall..." Camilla said with concern.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I take it?" Bernard said as he looked at Camilla.

"Because it sounds incredibly more dangerous than I thought it would... I think we should call off this deal we made. I'm not comfortable with letting you deal with this by yourself." Camilla said with a serious tone.

"What? No way!" Bernard said as he sat up and looked at Camilla. "I only came out here because of this job and we had an agreement that you'd let me handle it." He said as he looked at Camillas bothered expression.

"That was when I thought this job sounded simple, even for an S-class quest." Camilla argued. "But I'm not going to be alright with you and the creatures dealing with this by yourselves after what I just heard from the mayor." She explained.

"You promised..." Bernard said with a serious gaze to a worried Camilla.

"I know already but... Are you seriously expecting me to not feel concerned?" Camilla questioned.

"No... But this deal we have is too good for me to pass up!" Bernard exclaimed with a serious tone as Camilla bit her lips in frustration.

"Is it really that much of a big deal?" Camilla asked.

"Hell yeah it is! 360,000 Jewel and my "enslavement" to the guild to be over? It's totally worth it!" Bernard said with an ecstatic tone.

"...Which "reward" is the one that's exciting you so much?" Camilla said with an offended expression forming on her face as she crossed her arms.

"Oh come on, you can't be getting bothered by me saying that. You're the one who made the deal back at Psycho Circus." Bernard said.

_"I know... But the only reason I made this deal was to not make you feel like Psycho Circus was a "prison" for you..." _Camilla thought with a twitch in her eye. "Let's say you succeed..." She asked as Bernard raised an eyebrow.

"And you know I'm going to do as much as I can to make that a reality." Bernard remarked with a snarky attitude to Camillas chagrin.

"If you succeed and you aren't "bound" to Psycho Circus and the "punishment" will finally be over... What happens after that?" Camilla asked.

"Probably to get back to what I was doing with Corvus and Vulp before you guys picked me up." Bernard said as he laid back down on the bed.

"Sending them off to some random Celestial Spirit wizard who never met them and could very well not use them?" Camilla said with a raised eyebrow.

"It's the reason I even left Hargeon in the first place." Bernard replied.

"And the reason you've saved a bunch of peoples lives alongside them... Not even related to Psycho Circus." Camilla remarked as Bernard looked over at her before back to looking at the ceiling.

"That's..." Bernard stuttered, not sure how to answer.

"Look... I promised to talk to Master Barnum and wipe the slate clean of your status as "prisoner" so you'll no longer be stuck to the guild and all the punishment stuff from awhile ago will be done... But after that..." Camilla said as she looked down at the ground, unsure of what to say next.

"After that?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow as he looked back over at her.

"...Nothing... Just forget it." Camilla said as she laid back onto her bed and then proceeded to get under the covers, facing away from Bernard. _"After the punishment has been lifted... He won't feel like he is obligated to stick around..." _Camilla thought as she closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep.

"Hmmm?" Bernard mumbled as he shrugged his shoulders and laid back on his bed as he looked at the ceiling once more. _"Truth be told, a creature with tentacles and something that could fly would be nice replacements for Vulp and Corvus but... Then again, I already know how they work and they listen to- Wait, why am I thinking about this, I don't have to work for Psycho Circus anymore if I can get rid of this... Ghost... Wait..." _He thought before suddenly sitting back up from the bed. _"...But... What am I going to do then...?"_ Bernard continued to think.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Former Phantom Lord guildhall, 9:32 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Standing in front of the dilapidated castle that used to be the Phantom Lord guildhall was Bernard, staring at the front door as his beastly allies appeared from out of his body. Baurs and Vulp standing beside him on both sides and Corvus on his shoulder, as he looked on with a serious gaze.

"Yo." Corvus said as he greeted Bernard. "So what we doing about this ghost hunting thing?" The crow asked with interest.

"Hmmmm…" Bernard mumbled in curiosity.

"Something on your mind?" Baurs asked as Vulp looked up at Bernard.

"Oh hey, where's the hottie?" Corvus asked as he looked around for Camilla.

"Camillas staying in town, gonna try and see if she can find something to do while we work on this..." Bernard said as he continued to gaze at the abandoned castle that still had the old guild logo for Phantom Lord, a purple circle with horns and a tail at the bottom.

"Booo!" Corvus exclaimed in annoyance. "If she got spooked by the weird poltergeist we gotta get rid of, I was hoping she would cling to me for comfort. Hehe." The crow joked as Bernards eye twitched from his asinine comment.

"I highly doubt Mr. Bernards girlfriend will cling to you, given the size difference." Baurs stated casually as Corvus looked at the large rock lizard annoyed.

"Oh shut up!" Corvus exclaimed angrily.

"Hey." Bernard said, speaking up and prompting Corvus, Vulp and Baurs to look at him. "You guys know anything about Phantom Lord?" He asked as he looked at the creatures, prompting them to shake their heads left and right to signify a negative response.

"I mean, I heard Leo back in the Celestial Spirit world refer to fighting one of their members when he was in exile but I didn't get the whole story." Corvus said as he rubbed the back of his head with his right wing.

"Phantom Lord, nearly a decade ago, was the strongest guild in Fiore. It had hundreds of members and operated out of a multitude of satellite guildhalls throughout the country. Their leader was also exceptionally powerful, one of the Ten Wizard Saints in fact." Bernard said as he rattled off information about Phantom Lord.

"What's a Wizard Saint?" Baurs asked out curiosity.

"They're the top wizards in the kingdom of Fiore, based on their magical ability alone. One of the members was the leader of Phantom Lord, his name was Jose Porla. He was removed from his seat in the Wizard Saints after he tried to destroy Magnolia alongside his guildmembers." Bernard continued. "After he was kicked out of his seat and then his guild was disbanded, he just disappeared from the public eye after Master Makarov from the Fairy Tail guild defeated him for trying to destroy an entire town."

"...Whoa..." Corvus said bewildered.

"Quite the tale..." Baurs said as Vulp nodded in agreeance.

"Yeah but, why does that matter?" Corvus questioned.

"I was thinking on the way up here..." Bernard said as he looked at the entrance to the abandoned castle. "Mr. Zant said the ghost that has been inhabiting this place is extremely powerful and several wizards have been sent here over the years to try beat this thing and died trying... So that got me thinking... Jose Porla wasn't a young guy." He continued as the spirits looked at eachother.

"A powerful spirit haunts this place and has been killing wizards for years..." Baurs said.

"...Please... Don't tell me." Corvus said as he put his wings over his face as he realized what Bernard was building to.

"We're going to go into a haunted building to stop a ghost that may just happen to be the ghost of a Wizard Saint... And by ourselves when we aren't even actual S-class wizards..." Bernard said casually as he looked blankly at the building as he and the creatures looked at the guildhall with nervous tension building up within them.

"...The amount of money we are doing this for isn't nearly worth it, isn't it?" Corvus asked with an expression of anxiety.

"Nope, not really..." Bernard said through gritted teeth.

"...We're doomed..." Corvus said bluntly.

* * *

**Okay... Things might not be in the best of circumstances for Bernard and his team of loyal creatures who inhabit his body. After a fun race to the town and a little bit of casual banter between Camilla and Bernard, the duo met the mayor of Oak Town and learned of its difficulty history since the disbandment of the Phantom Lord guild many years ago. If Bernard succeeds at ridding the ghost infested former guildhall, he'll be considered "free" from his punishment and "prisoner" status within the Psycho Circus guild but deep down, Camilla is worried about whether or not he will stick around once his punishment has ceased. Will Bernard succeed without the help of Camilla? And what of this ghost within the guildhall? Could Jose Porla still be alive or has he become a literal phantom? Answered asked and questions remain! Menagerie! Always questioning when the next chapter will appear! **


	46. Chapter 46

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Former Phantom Lord Guildhall, 9:40 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Swallowing spit as his beastly allies stood behind him, Bernard nervously approached the closed doors of the front gate to the guildhall that used to belong to the now disbanded Phantom Lord wizard guild. Putting his hands on the large door to the guild, Bernard mentally prepared himself before he went inside.

"Whoa whoa!" Corvus exclaimed as he flew up to Bernard to stop him before he pushed the door open. "Wait a second!" The crow bellowed.

"Yeah, I would like to take a minute here too..." Bernard said as he quickly turned around and faced the creatures.

"Should we really be putting ourselves at this much risk?" Baurs asked with a tone of concern as Bernard looked at Vulp and noticed the Celestial Spirit looked at him with the same level of caution.

"Well... We have fought a lot of stuff before and we have had success so far..." Bernard said as he rubbed the back of his neck with nervousness.

"Yeah but do you know how to handle a ghost of all things?" Corvus asked as Bernard bit his lip.

"I'm a circus manager, not a shaman or an exorcist..." Bernard said with a nervous expression.

"Then why the hell are we trying to clean up an old castle of a stupid ghost then!?" Corvus shouted.

"Because Camilla promised me the money from this job and... Something else..." Bernard said as he turned back towards the door and put his hands back up on it to open it up.

"And that "something" would be?" Baurs said as Vulp raised an eye in interest.

"...It's... Something private." Bernard said with a bothered expression.

'"Private?"... Ooohhhh, I get it, hehehe." Corvus said until he started chuckling with a lewd expression forming.

"What?" Baurs said as she looked at Corvus.

"Looks like we are working overtime so Bernard can have his "first."' Corvus said with a smirk as Baurs and Vulp looked at Bernard with surprise.

"What the- No! That isn't it!" Bernard screamed as he looked at the monsters as he blushed.

"Hahaha! Look at him! You're totally getting some "good times" if you pull this off!" Corvus joked as he and the spirits smirked at Bernards embarrassment.

"No! Me and Camilla aren't doing that kind of thing if we pull this off! It's just... Complicated, alright?!" Bernard defiantly proclaimed before turning back to push open the door.

"Alright, alright calm down, hehehe. But one thing though? What's the plan here?" Corvus said as Bernard sighed.

"Basically, we gotta look around for a sign of something that could be haunted or attracting poltergeists so my guess is that we are probably looking for... A dead body." Bernard said as he bit his lip in agitation as the creatures looked at him with disturbed expressions.

"...Great... We have gone from fighting giant monsters and saving babies to corpse disposal..." Corvus said with a tone of bother.

"Certainly a step down." Baurs said as Vulp nodded in response.

"Okay, let's get a move on this…" Bernard said as he shook his head.

Pushing the large doors open to the old castle, the doors swung open slowly and creaked loudly as the group looked inside as the sunlight from outside crept into the abandoned halls. Peering within the large place, they saw myriads of cobwebs, dust and busted tables all over the place but what caught the attention of the group that made them feel uncomfortable was the noticeably large amount of clothes scattered about. Stone pillars of gray cobblestone and walls of bricks formed the foundation and tattered banners that sported the old Phantom Lord logos were strung around the walls off the windows.

"The hell is with all the clothes?" Corvus said as the quartet walked inside and begun to search the foyer of the castle.

As Bernard looked around, he looked at the various clothes that consisted of different types of gray jackets with black fur around the collars, sleeveless black shirts, tan pants and various purple knit caps with rabbit ear-like protrusions sticking out. Having an epiphany, Bernard looked around left and right before reaching into some of the pants in an effort to look for something.

"Highly doubt you are going to find money in there." Baurs said casually as she appeared behind Bernard, startling him.

"Wha?! Uh, Baurs! Uhhh… No, I wasn't looking for money! I was looking for- Uhhhh… Size tags..." Bernard stuttered.

'"Size tags?"' Baurs questioned.

"I... Was checking to see if these would fit me! See?!" Bernard said as he took off his beanie and grabbed one of the knit caps off the ground and placed it on his head. "Ho-how do I look?" He said with an embarrassed tone as Corvus and Vulp passed by him.

"You look like a big dork." Corvus said casually as Vulp and Baurs looked at Bernard as he took off the hat and put his beanie back on his head.

_"Yeaahhh that wasn't one of my better moments..." _Bernard thought as he scratched his forehead. "Let-lets just get back to work." He said as the group continued investigating. Corvus looked up towards the pillars to the room as Vulp sniffed around under the tables and Bernard and Baurs looked around together by the staircase to the upper floor.

"This place is a mess." Corvus said as he picked up a coat off the ground with his wings and looked over towards the others.

"What else is obvious?" Bernard said sarcastically as he looked around on the ground as Vulp proceeded to walk over to him as he sniffed the staircase. "...Let me guess, up there?" He said as he rolled his eyes upward as Corvus and Baurs approached.

"It would appear we need to go up there." Baurs said casually as Bernard and Corvus shook their heads in dismay.

'"Great..."' Bernard and Corvus said as they looked upwards.

"Vulp... You wanna go up first?" Bernard said with a trouble expression as Vulp shook his head to signify a negative response. _"Yeah, I kinda figured he wouldn't want to go..."_ He thought as he looked at Baurs and Corvus. "You guys?" Bernard asked.

"...I would but uhhh… My wings hurt and I wouldn't want to waddle up there slowly and all, you know?" Corvus said as he feigned his wings not being able to be raised over his head.

"Oh ha ha..." Bernard said with a twitch in his eye before he turned to look at Baurs.

"If I may speak freely, I do not wish to go first." Baurs said as she looked at Bernard as the Celestial Spirits looked at him as well, hoping he would go up first.

"Fine, I'll go up the stairs." Bernard said as he put his hands on his face to steel his resolve.

Taking off his beanie and scratching his head to prepare himself before putting it back on, Bernard took a step forward and placed his foot on the first step of the stairs. As he went on the step, a light breeze went through the air that sent a chill up Bernards backside, prompting him to look back towards the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental.

"...You guys feel that?" Bernard said with a serious look in his eyes.

"No?" Corvus replied as Baurs and Vulp shook their heads.

"It felt like something was breathing on me or coming up to me or something..." Bernard said as he rubbed his left shoulder with his right hand in a distressed manner as Baurs raised her head up as she noticed something.

"Mr. Bernard! Look!" Baurs said as Bernard, Corvus and Vulp looked up towards the top of the stairwell as the group noticed something was beginning to manifest out of thin air.

Forming at the top of the stairwell was a figure made of black smoke. The black smoke formed together into a dark living shadow with a purple cloak of energy over its body and outstretched from the cloak was a pair of purple claws. Underneath the cloaks hood was a pair of circular glowing red eyes as it shifted its gaze towards the group of Bernard and the beasts.

"...Baurs… Do "Shadow Elementals" or "Darkness Elementals?" exist?" Bernard said as he stared with a fearful expression at the shadowy creature floating above them on the stairwell.

"Potentially... But I don't think that is one." Baurs said as they all continued to stare at the shadowy figure.

"...Not what I wanted to hear- Whoa!" Bernard said until he noticed the shadowy figure raised its claws and swooped down towards the group.

Dispersing to dodge the attack, Bernard and the creatures scattered in different directions. Twisting back to see, Bernard looked up and saw the black smoke monster had twisted back around and proceeded to lunge back towards him. Flying by, the ghostly creature had proceeded to pass through his body as if Bernard was a wall and the shadow phased through it.

"Ahhh!" Bernard screamed after the shadow figure phased through his chest, crouching to his knees as he clutched at the area around his chest and heart Lacrima.

"Kid!?" Corvus exclaimed in concern before turning his attention to the shadow, sparking up his red and white lightning. "Take this!" He shouted as he fired a bolt of electricity towards the direction of the shadow monster as it dodged the lightning and proceeded to float away towards the upstairs area. "Damn it! The ghost is getting away!" Corvus said as he proceeded to chase after it with Baurs quickly running on all fours up the stairs to assist.

Continuing to clutch his chest, Bernard was still kneeling down as he started to sweat and breath heavily. Concerned for his health, Vulp approached to check on him.

_"...That thing passed through me... I feel so... Exhausted..." _Bernard thought as he continued to struggle to breathe. Looking up towards the stairs and then back to Vulp, he pulled himself up from the ground and begun to dust himself off. "Come on, Vulp! We gotta go." He said as he and Vulp quickly rushed up the stairs.

Floating through a hallway upstairs, the shadowy figure attempted to escape as Corvus emerged from out of a corner and proceeded to rush quickly at the shadow figure with his body sparking up. Dashing at a break neck pace, the crow Celestial Spirit tackled himself into the shadow figure with the electrical energy zapping the black smoke creature until it dispersed in the air.

"Yeah! Gotcha, you stupid cloaked freak!" Corvus said with an angry smile as he gloated with Baurs, followed by Bernard and Vulp, approaching behind him. "I got the ghost guys!" The crow said as he turned around and looked at the others.

"You destroyed that thing?" Bernard said as he still held the area around his heart.

"One hit!" Corvus said with a cocky attitude as he flapped his wings in the air. "Guess the job is done?" The crow questioned.

"How sure are you that the thing you just killed was the ghost?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm curious too. What was that?" Baurs asked.

"Well, I thought..." Corvus said with a hesitant tone.

"Hmmmm…" Bernard mumbled as he stood around with a face lost in thought as Vulp looked at him with concern.

"I know that look in his eyes..." Corvus said as flew down to the ground and looked up at Bernard.

"...After it went through me, I felt like I had lost something..." Bernard said as he scratched at his chest, specifically around his heart area.

"Is your Lacrima acting up?" Baurs asked out of concern.

"No, I am fine but... Hmmm..." Bernard said with a bothered expression before turning his gaze over to Corvus. "The thing was running away up the stairs... Which means it was heading somewhere..." He said as he walked passed the creatures as he started to open doors in the hallway.

"What we looking for?" Corvus said as he, Vulp and Baurs followed Bernard through the halls of the former Phantom Lord guild.

"There has to be a reason that shade thing was running away. It came out of nowhere the moment I stepped on the stairs and then just hightailed it to god knows where the moment it went through me." Bernard explained as he scanned room after room for possible evidence.

"Maybe it was frightened by the birds electrical powers?" Baurs explained as Corvus got annoyed.

"I'm not a bird! I'm a crow!" Corvus complained.

"Shut up!" Bernard shouted as he moved to another room. Opening another door, Bernards eyes widened as he found something they made him stop and look with surprise before shutting the door and beginning to cough into his hands. "Okay... That wasn't what I wanted to see..." He said between coughs.

"What? Why? What's in here?" Corvus said as he flew over to the closed door, opened it up with his talon and looked inside before doing exactly what Bernard did; closing it and coughing violently into his wings as he fell down to the ground.

"...Dead body?" Baurs said with curiosity as Vulp looked at the rock lizard with a surprised yet confused expression.

'"Dead body."' Bernard and Corvus said bluntly as they both looked back at door before Bernard put his hands on the door handle and then pushed it open as the group looked inside to the room.

Inside was a large bedroom with a cabinet filled with books, a table with a small chair next to a window that was covered by shades and, most notably, a bed that had a skeleton in it, under the sheets. Along the floor, there was a set of clothes on the ground; a blue cloak with an emblem of a bright teal cross and next to the cloak was an incredibly large green coat, a pair of sandals and a green fedora on the ground, covered in dust.

"Hey, kid." Corvus said with a smirk as he waddled over to the fedora. "Need a new hat?" The crow joked as he picked up the hat with his wing as Bernards eye twitched.

"That probably belonged to someone..." Bernard said with crossed arms as Corvus cringed at the realization he might have been holding a hat that might have been on a corpse at one point, dropping it back on the floor.

"Okay!... Never touching anything ever again..." Corvus said with a shiver as Vulp walked over and sniffed the bright teal cross on the blue cloak as Bernard spotted the fox doing that.

"What's up?" Bernard asked as he walked over and picked up the emblem off the floor. "...Well, looks like we found Jose Porlas room." He said as he looked over the emblem.

"What makes you say that?" Baurs asked as Bernard continued to examine the emblem.

"This is a seal that signifies a Wizard Saint." Bernard said as he showed the tag around to the creatures.

"...Then... That bag of bones over there might be the guy?" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked over towards the skeleton on the bed.

"...Nice to meet you... Mr. Porla…" Bernard said as he looked over at the skeleton, a bothered expression on his face.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Oak Town, 10:56 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Walking around the town, attempting to sightsee, was Camilla.

_"Jeez... This town is boring..."_ Camilla said with a tired face as she casually walked around. _"No wonder they have been trying to take down that old guildhall to improve this place, there's nothing to do around here!" _She mentally complained.

Passing store after store and business after business, Camilla stopped on a corner and noticed a little shop that said "Magic Store" on the front banner.

_"Local magic shop... Maybe I can find something interesting in here."_ Camilla said with a shrug as she entered the magic shop.

Looking around, there were shelves of magical items; small grimoires, magic wands, long staffs, enriched herbs, among other things. Scanning her eyes around the various wares in the store, Camilla felt uninterested at the items in front of her.

"Spell books for low quality spells, magic rings that do light tricks, wands for flower tricks. Nothing amazing." Camilla said to herself as she scratched her head.

"Pardon?" Said a new voice suddenly as Camilla got startled and turned around to notice a small man in a blue wizard hat and a red cloak with orange hair. "You said "nothing amazing" just now?" The man said.

"Uhhh, yeah, sorry. Store owner?" Camilla said in an apologetic tone.

"Yes, but don't apologize. Sadly, I haven't had many customers so my stock is a "mixed bag" right now. But I can tell just from looking at you that you are a wizard, correct?" The store owner asked.

"Yeah actually." Camilla replied.

"Might I interest you in a book for Coloring Magic?" The store owner said as he pulled out a grimoire from his cloak. "If you use this on your clothes-" He explained until Camilla spoke up.

"It will make them change colors. I know, I have one at home." Camilla said. _"Saves me the trouble of needing to buy different tank tops. Hehehe."_ She thought with a chuckle in her head.

"Oh darn... Well then... What about this?" The store owner said as he put away the Coloring Magic grimoire and pulled out something that made Camilla raise an eyebrow; a red collar with a Lacrima hanging from it. "A "Obedience Collar?"'

"Excuse me?" Camilla said with surprise as she looked at the collar.

"It's a magical trinket that I keep in the back for only the people willing to buy it. Bit of a hard seller but since business is down, I figured I'd try to push it." The store owner explained. "If you put this around the neck of someone, it will cause whomever put it on them to be in complete control of the person when they give a command to 'em and only the person who put it on to be able to take it off." He said with a devilish grin.

"...Is... This something you can legally sell?" Camilla said with a suspicious look in her eyes.

"Ye-yes! It's completely legal! Hehehe." The store owner said sheepishly. _"Okay, it's not. It used to belong a cult overseas but I got it on a bargain to sell!"_ The owner thought with nervous sweat dripping down his face.

"...Whomever wears it... Has to do what the other wants, no matter what..." Camilla said to herself as she held the collar in her hands before a thought passed through her head. _"With this... There'd be no way he would leave..."_ She thought as a decision started to form within her conscience.

"I can sell it to you for a bargain price too!" The store owner said with a greedy smile forming on his face as he held out his hand for a handshake.

_"...I don't know..."_ Camilla thought with a troubled expression as she continued to look at the Obedience Collar.

* * *

**Dead bodies, kinky collars and ghostly figures, this is getting exciting!... Or weird. That too. Bernard has trekked around the inside of the Phantom Lord guildhall and after having an encounter with a shadowy apparition, him and his beastly allies have succeeded in finding a dead body that perhaps may have once been the former Wizard Saint and Phantom Lord guild master, Jose Porla. But what now that they have found the skeleton? And what of Camilla? Offered a magic collar of obedience, will she buy it? And will she put it on a certain someone? Who knows... Till next time... On Menagerie! **

**Author's Note: (Hey, it's another cutdown chapter! Fucking pandemic right now has been making my life harder and harder to get time to write this btw but hey, I am trying. Thanks for the reviews and don't be afraid to keep reviewing, I love seeing them, helps keep me motivated.)**


	47. Chapter 47

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Former Phantom Lord Guildhall, 11:13 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"...Alright... I'm about to touch the dead body of a former Wizard Saint..." Bernard said cautiously as he loomed over the skeleton.

"You don't have to say it out loud you know..." Corvus said with a bothered expression as Vulp and Baurs looked on, troubled by their magical benefactor standing over a skeleton.

"Hold on." Baurs said as she spoke up, prompting Bernard to quickly turn around to look at her.

"Yeah?" Bernard replied. _"Oh thank goodness! Now I don't have to touch it yet!"_ He thought with happiness.

"Are you able to tell if this skeleton is the source of the creature we encountered?" Baurs questioned.

"Huh, that makes some sense." Corvus said in agreeance as Bernard turned around to look at the skeleton.

"No, not really, how would I go about checking that?" Bernard said as he scratched his head in confusion.

"Can't you tell if it's radiating any sort of magical energy?" Baurs wondered as Bernard looked at the corpse and tried to feel for any sort of energy coming off it.

"Anything?" Corvus said as Vulp raised an eye in curiosity.

"...Nothing, I don't really feel anything." Bernard said as he looked at the skeleton.

"Then that means... This dead body isn't the source of that thing I zapped?" Corvus said.

"I'm assuming." Baurs said as Bernard looked down at the skeleton some more.

_"Hmmmm…"_ Bernard mentally mumbled in curiosity.

"Looks like this bag of bones might be a wash." Corvus said as he flew over to Bernards shoulder and perched on it. "And thank the stars for that..." The crow whispered.

"No kidding..." Bernard said as he looked at the crow before turning back towards Vulp and Baurs.

"If anything, I'm hoping that shadow thing I obliterated was the ghost we needed to destroy." Corvus stated as Vulp nodded in agreeance as Bernard started to think.

"...Hold on..." Bernard said aloud, catching the attention of the creatures.

"What's rattling inside your head now?" Corvus said.

"The piles and piles of clothes..." Bernard said as he turned his head back towards the skeleton.

"What about them?" Baurs asked.

"...Let's come back here in a bit. I want to keep looking around." Bernard said as he walked away from the bed and headed out the door with the creatures, closing it behind them as they failed to notice the skull of the skeleton had turned to look at them as they left.

Moving up to the next set of floors, Bernard started to inspect the walls of the building.

"What we looking for?" Corvus said as he flew above the ground.

"Give me a second..." Bernard said as he started to knock against the wall, investigating for something. "Ah, there's a hollow point. Vulp, form a fist with your tail and punch a hole right here." He said as Vulp walked over and transformed his tail into a hairy fist, punching it through wall.

"Why couldn't you just do it? Or you worried you might hurt your delicate hands? Hehehe." Corvus said jokingly as Bernards eye twitched.

"No!" Bernard said angrily. _"...Well... Yeah, I dont want to break my knuckles."_ He thought with relief that he wasn't going to hurt himself.

As Vulp pulled out his tail, Bernard noticed that something was lodged in the fur of Vulps tail; a small finger bone. Pulling it out of his fur with his paw, Vulp looked over it as Corvus flew up to Bernards shoulder.

"More bones?" Corvus said with curiosity as Vulp dropped it on the ground before Bernard started picking at the hole in the wall with his hands as more and more pieces of bones started to fall out.

Ribs, femurs, toes and a skull fell out of the large hole from the wall as the group looked around at the pile.

"Seems to be missing some hands and parts for legs and arms but we have the skull, this is another body." Baurs said as she looked over the pile with the group.

"Ugh, what the hell..." Corvus said, grossed out by the appearance of another corpse. "What brought you to this conclusion there was another?" The crow asked.

"A theory..." Bernard said as he reached over towards the bones. "Okay, Vulp, you just touched the little finger bone earlier yeah?" He asked as the fox nodded in agreement. "Alright, Baurs… Get ready with the mud." Bernard said as he pointed his fingers at the Earth Elemental and gave her some of his magic.

"Got it." Baurs said as Corvus and Vulp stood back.

Bernard reached his hands down and proceeded to put it on the skull. As he held the skull in his hands, dark energy begun to emit from the skull as Bernard looked upward as another one of those mysterious shadow creatures from before with the red circle eyes and hood appeared.

"Now!" Bernard shouted as Baurs opened her mouth and a torrent of mud had emerged, spraying the shadow creature as it slammed against a wall, leaving a large indent as it disappeared. "Nice job!" He exclaimed as he dropped the skull on the ground in a fit of excitement.

"Whoa, another one of those things showed up again?!" Corvus said with surprise as he looked at Bernard.

"Come on, I had an idea and I think I figured out what had happened. Follow me." Bernard said as he motioned for them to follow him as headed for the staircase back down towards the foyer. Walking down the stairs, Bernard made sure to be careful where he placed his feet as he was followed by his beastly allies.

"Ok, now what?" Corvus questioned.

"Aha!" Bernard exclaimed as he looked at the bottom step. "Look what I found!" He said as he picked up a small piece of bone that was on the staircase, showing it to the creatures.

"A toe bone?" Baurs said as Corvus and Vulp looked at Bernard with confusion.

"Not just any toe bone... The toe bone I stepped on when I first got near the stairs and then what happened?" Bernard said as he questioned the others.

"Then... That shadow thing appeared at the top of the stairs?" Corvus said with confusion.

"Precisely!" Bernard said as he pointed at the crow with an excited attitude as he quickly rushed back up the stairs to the top area before it diverged into the upper floors. "Baurs! Come here and slam your foot through this floor, I got another theory!" He said as Baurs followed him up the stairs as Vulp and Corvus looked at eachother.

"Why do you think he is so chipper all of a sudden?" Corvus asked to the fox as Vulp made a confused face as a crashing noise was heard where Baurs stuck her large rock foot through as Bernard started rummaging about in the hole. "Whatcha find?" The crow asked.

"This!" Bernard said as he showed he now had the top portion of a skull in his hands.

"Another head? How many dead bodies are in this place!?" Corvus said with surprise as he and Vulp joined Bernard and Baurs at the top of the stairs.

"That's what I was thinking. Look." Bernard said as he pointed at all the clothes scattered all over the floors. "Why is there so much clothing all over the place? It can't be for no particular reason." He continued as he examined the skull.

"Maybe Phantom Lord was full of nudists... Hehehe." Corvus joked as Vulp and Baurs looked at him, unimpressed. "Hey! I'm only kidding!" The crow said in retaliation.

"So I started to think for a minute. "Why did that shadow thing appear?" So I remembered how I stepped on that bone and then boom, it came out from this exact spot where the skull was!" Bernard said as he held up the skull in front of everyone. "Then when we got upstairs and we found those other pieces of bone lodged in the wall, another one spawned up when I touched the skull with my hands." He continued to explain.

"So what?" Corvus said with confusion. _"I swear... The more time I spend with this kid, the more it hurts my head to think of how his mind works..."_ The crow thought, struggling to follow.

"Ok, I can see you're having trouble figuring it out so let me explain it more clearly. The bones in this place are acting like triggers and the skulls are housing the shadows monsters that kept spawning... What does that mean?" Bernard explained.

"That would mean... Wait..." Corvus said as he tried to think before finally coming to a conclusion. "This guildhall is..." Corvus said as his eyes widened as he started to look around.

"Boobytrapped..." Bernard said as he looked around at the wrecked foyer.

"That doesn't explain one thing though." Baurs said as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits turned to look at her. "If that's true, then why didn't the shadow monsters appear when the fox was touching the toe bone upstairs?" She questioned as Vulp looked to Bernard for answers.

"Maybe..." Bernard said as he continued to ponder. "Maybe... It's triggered by magical energy?" He theorized.

"Yeah but Vulp has magical energy inside him." Corvus said.

"...Or maybe... It's triggered by wizards?" Baurs said, causing the others to turn towards her before the Earth Elemental and the Celestial Spirits looked at Bernard.

"I... Guess that makes sense..." Bernard said as he threw away the skull. "But now we have a new problem..." He said as he took off his beanie and started scratching his head.

"What now?" Corvus said.

"We found two pieces of dead skeletons in the walls and floor and then that one full one upstairs in that room... How many more are in this place?" Bernard said as he put his beanie back on as the creatures eyes widened.

"Oh... Yeah..." Corvus said with an exhausted tone as he realized what Bernard meant as he, Vulp and Baurs looked down at all the clothes. "You don't think there's a skeleton for every single combo of clothes in this place, do you?" The crow said nervously.

"There might be... Why? You worried about running into more ghosts?" Bernard said with a smirk as he looked at Corvus.

"I ain't afraid of no dumb ghosts!" Corvus exclaimed as he looked at the smug look on Bernard.

"But if that's true, how many skeletons are even in this place?" Baurs asked.

"And why are they all weird shady things?" Corvus said.

"And how did they get like that, who or what did that to them and why they are hidden. I know, we have tons of questions and little answers but for now, we have a strategy to helping us finish this job and we're better off sticking to it." Bernard said with a determined tone.

"What's the plan then kid?" Corvus said.

"Ok, so we know we don't need to pick up every piece of the skeleton to get the shadow creatures to come out and attack so if we focus on finding the skulls, we can clear this place of the things in no time. Once we clean out the haunting, we can leave the bone piles for the town to clean up when they tear this place down." Bernard explained.

"Fine by me as long we don't have to actually bury any of these skeletons." Corvus said, hopeful they don't have to clean up the bodies.

"I could just dig a large hole to dump them all." Baurs said casually.

"No! I don't wanna play "grave digger!"' Corvus shouted in a defiant tone as Bernard and Vulp smirked at his tirade.

"Well then, let's get started." Bernard said as the group readied themselves to start searching around.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Former Phantom Lord Guildhall, 2:03 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Nearly three hours have passed since the group of Bernard and his beastly allies had started searching around the former guildhall of Phantom Lord. Bernard, pacing around the foyer and continuing to look at the clothes, started to feel like he was being watched as he rubbed his Lacrima pacemaker.

_"Jeez... This place is giving me the creeps... And that weird shadow thing... It ran right through me and then I suddenly felt drained but why did I get like that...?"_ Bernard thought as he sat down on the ground.

"Yo!" Corvus exclaimed as flew into the room, carrying a tarp filled with skulls in his talons as Baurs and Vulp arrived, dragging bags of skulls behind them as Bernards eyes widened in surprise.

"Ho-how many..." Bernard stuttered as he looked at the piles of skulls.

"I went upstairs towards the roof of the building and Vulp checked the middle floors, minus the room where that full corpse was." Baurs said as Vulp nodded.

_"...That body in the bed upstairs still has its head?" _Bernard thought as he turned his head over towards the piles of skulls they collected. "One... Two... Where'd you get these ones?" He said towards Corvus as he counted and pointing at the skulls.

"Wine cellar... Burp!" Corvus said with a smirk before burping.

"...Well that explains why you smell like booze..." Bernard said in disgusted from the smell coming off the crow as he continued to count.

"This place has a great stash of hooch in the basement." Corvus said casually.

"Great... You save any for me?" Bernard said before asking if there was some left.

"Yeah, couple of bottles still left down there. Do you want one? Because I was thinking about going back down for more, hehehe." Corvus joked as Bernard rolled his eyes.

"Was thinking it be a good gift for Camilla or something..." Bernard said as he continued to count.

"A gift? Thought you didn't like being "lovey-dovey" with her?" Corvus said with a smile forming on his face.

"Hey, it's not like that... She looks at me like I am her boyfriend and it's something I can't fight against so... Figured it be a nice gesture, you know?" Bernard said with a bit of embarrassment.

"Sounds like something a guy in love would say, hehehe." Corvus joked.

"Sh-shut up!" Bernard said with a red face of embarrassment as Vulp looked at him with a happy expression.

"Awww look at his face!" Corvus said as he pointed his wing at Bernards red face.

"Knock it off! I gotta count these damn skulls!" Bernard said in retaliation. _"Definitely not going to mention the issues I had sleeping last night without Camilla holding me..."_ He thought as he went back to counting.

"Or it sounds like a guy who is finding reasons to stick around his home." Baurs said as Bernard looked at her.

"...It's not like that..." Bernard said as he bit his lip.

"Aww come on, we know full well you don't hate your friends and family like you did originally." Corvus said as Bernard stood up.

"I'm tired of hearing that over and over, I get it already. No, I don't hate anybody in Psycho Circus for everything that happened." Bernard said as he looked at everyone.

"Then why you still act awkward around everyone?" Corvus asked as Bernard made a troubled expression.

"Because... I'm not a fan of the whole "prisoner" thing still being active..." Bernard said as he shook his head.

"Then tell them you want to be a member of the guild." Corvus said in response.

"...And then I'd basically be admitting defeat to my old man..." Bernard said.

"The guild master thing again...?" Corvus said with a serious expression.

"I don't like the fact that thing constantly gets shoved in my face and I just don't want that much responsibility with that kind of stuff..." Bernard said as he stood around.

"And don't want to talk about it with him, I guess?" Baurs said as Vulp looked at him with concern.

"...Anytime he talks, it's bad humor and nothing else." Bernard said as he criticizes his father.

_"...The terrible jokes aside, I can't tell if the kid can tell his father might just be as intelligent as he is and is a master at hiding it..."_ Corvus thought. "Well... Lets say this "prisoner" thing ends and you're free to do what you want... Whatcha gonna do next?" He asked with a cautious tone.

"...Well, maybe if we can finish this job, we can find out." Bernard said as he finished counting as the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental suddenly looked at him with confusion.

"Wh-what's that supposed to mean?" Corvus said with concern as he wondered what Bernard meant.

"...Me and Camilla made a deal that if we can handle this job, I can keep the money and the "punishment" will be over. Okay?" Bernard said as he stood up from his kneeling position and then looked over at the creatures.

"Wait, what?" Corvus said with surprise.

"Is that so?" Baurs questioned as Vulp looked at Bernard with wide eyes.

"Yeah so... Once we deal with this place, I'm no longer metaphorically "chained to the floor."' Bernard said as he shrugged his shoulders.

"...That's uhhh… Nice..." Corvus said as he turned around and begun to fly in another direction.

"Hey, where you going?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow as he noticed Corvus begun to fly towards a doorway heading downstairs.

"Just... Getting that bottle you wanted to give to the hot brunette..." Corvus said in a depressed sounding tone as he headed downstairs.

Looking up at Corvus and then towards Bernard, Vulp proceeded to head off to where Corvus was going and went down the stairs as well.

"Vulp? Where you going- Hey!" Bernard exclaimed in confusion as to where the Celestial Spirits were going before turning to Baurs. "What's up with them?" He said, unsure of what was going on.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Baurs said casually.

"...Well... I guess we could start killing these shadows off without them for now. Worst case scenario, I'll pull out Formosa as backup." Bernard said as he stood over the skulls.

"Very well then." Baurs said as Bernard glanced over the doorway to the lower area of the guildhall once more.

_"...What's with them?" _Bernard thought with a troubled expression as he got ready to put his hands on the skulls to summon out the shadow monsters.

* * *

**The writer has informed me to keep this ending monologue brief so here we go; OOOHHH SPOOKY~ What's next? Blah blah blah. Bernard needs to work on his communication skills and Camilla is hot. See you next time! **

**Authors note: (Wow thanks narrator, way to make me not sound like an ass... Okay real talk time, I have been dealing with the current world situation very hard right now as my personal life and work life have taken serious tolls on my ability to write, I almost was gonna post this chapter to the point it would be the shortest chapter I had ever wrote. To give you readers the respect you deserve out of the gratefulness of you reading my story for nearly a year, I wanted to give you guys the heads up about how hard it has been lately. Thank you for reading as usual.)**


	48. Chapter 48

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Former Phantom Lord Guildhall, 2:30 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Underneath the guildhall in the wine cellar, Corvus was sitting on a table with two empty wine bottles next to him with a third one in his right wing, chugging it down his throat with a disgruntled expression on his face. As he continued to drink, Vulp arrived from down the stairs as he smelled the wine in the air, cringing as the fox looked up at the table that his fellow Celestial Spirit was sitting on.

"...You know... Now that I think of it... This white hooch sucks, I prefer the red..." Corvus said with a relatively drunk tone as he looked at one of the empty bottles he had drank already before turning his head towards Vulp. Looking at him with a concerned yet judgmental expression, Vulp stared at Corvus as the crow proceeded to keep drinking.

"Oh heeeeey... When did yoooooou get here?" Corvus said while slurring his words slightly towards Vulp.

Changing his tail into a hand, the fox pointed his tail upward towards the foyer area as Corvus looked at the fox.

"...Oh yeah... The kid..." Corvus said as he looked at the bottle. "...Ugh..." He grunted as Vulp continued to point at the foyer. "Oh come on... You know, it's bugging you too..." Corvus said as Vulp stopped pointing at the foyer, turning his tail back to normal.

Looking at the crow, Vulp made a similarly troubled expression as Corvus as he took his tail and picked up one of the empty bottles his friend drank.

"Yeah... I know the kid wanted to bring one to his busty girlfriend but he might be a bit late... I might have already drank all of the good ones and might have left nothing but the crappy stuff..." Corvus said as he continued to drink more of the wine.

Vulp, getting frustrated with his friends attitude, then stretched his tail outward and grabbed the bottle from Corvus' hand.

"Hey!" Corvus complained as Vulp threw away the bottle, locking eyes with the fox. "Funny you throw away that bottle... Like that jerk is doing with us..." The crow said with an aggravated tone as Vulp looked at Corvus with an angry look as well. "I saw his little book when he wasn't looking before we came out here, he is looking for another thing with wings and something else with a morphing ability like you can... Know what that means? We are being thrown away, just like last time!" Corvus shouted.

Vulp, eyes twitching in agitation, slammed his paws on the table in frustration as Corvus sat on the table as he wiped his face with his wing.

"Ugh! Can't believe this is happening again... And you'd think after all we did for that kid... All the fights and protecting and caring... He's just throwing us under the bridge..." Corvus said with an angry yet depressed tone. Vulp, looking at Corvus then proceeded to move his tail in front of Corvus. "Oh what now...?" The crow said disgruntled.

Morphing his tail, Vulp shifted it into a logo of a crazed clown face, the symbol of Psycho Circus. Rolling his eyes, Corvus got annoyed as he swatted away the hairy symbol of Bernards guild.

"Yeah, yeah, don't remind me... Damn kid, doesn't want to be a part of anything so he just wants to get rid of us then back to being an obnoxious douchebag, bumming around and being a jerk to everyone..." Corvus said as he continued to complain as Vulp lowered his ears in a sign of worry as Corvus noticed this. "Hey... I'm the depressed one here, I don't want to see you getting as down as I am..." He said with a depressed sigh.

Meanwhile upstairs, Bernard and Baurs were getting to work on clearing out the shadows from the skulls they found.

"Okay! Next!" Bernard exclaimed as he grabbed another skull as another shadow creature appeared from the skull once more as Baurs opened her mouth and launched a torrent of mud, smashing another shadow into a wall of the foyer area, a wall that also consisted of several dozen other indents of similar size and shape. "Nice work!" He exclaimed in joy.

"How many was that now?" Baurs asked as she shook her head, her rock neck cracking with each turn.

"Last I checked..." Bernard said as he counted the skulls and then the indents in the wall. "We have destroyed about thirty one ghost shadow thingies." He said as he scratched his face.

"More than I would have thought, I believe I lost count since I seem to be the only one destroying them." Baurs said as she turned her head towards the door to the cellar.

"Yeah, where the hell are they?" Bernard said as he looked at the cellar, unsure of where Corvus and Vulp was.

"They seemed to be upset after you told them about that deal you made with Camilla." Baurs said casually as Bernard took off his beanie and started scratching his head.

"Hey, it's not like I said something to offend them..." Bernard said as he put his hat back on. "Why are they getting so upset about me no longer being a prisoner in Psycho Circus? They should be happy for me." He continued.

"It doesn't seem like they are angry with you, they seemed more depressed." Baurs stated as Bernard looked at her with an unsure look.

"...Depressed about what?" Bernard questioned.

"Obviously it's over something." Baurs said casually as Bernard looked away with a troubled expression.

_"Yeah but... What's wrong?"_ Bernard thought as he tried to think about what was wrong with the Celestial Spirits. "Hey... Mind if I ask you something?" He asked of the Earth Elemental.

"Considering the contract between us makes me your servant, I am obligated to do so." Baurs stated casually.

"Actually that's what I wanted to ask you about... What do you think of me?" Bernard asked out of curiosity.

"I beg your pardon?" Baurs said with confusion as Bernard bit his lip.

"...What do you think of me? Be honest... Please." Bernard said with a wince as he looked at the large rock lizard, wondering her answer.

"I believe you are intelligent but hide behind insecurities too much. You seem to have leadership qualities and an ability to command others to a level that's commendable but a lack of trust in yourself gives you this issue of trusting others like your friends or your girlfriend or even us-" Baurs explained as Bernard stopped her.

"Hey, I trust my friends... Except I... Still haven't spent any time with them personally and it's mostly begrudgingly after Camilla drags me along... But hey, I trust Camilla... Somewhat, I worry she will one day rip off my clothes in my sleep and then fool around with my unconscious body... And I trust-" Bernard said until Baurs stopped him.

"Do you?" Baurs questioned as Bernard looked at her with a face full of concern.

"...Ummm…" Bernard mumbled.

"You keep talking about how you want to finish this deal you made to give them to a proper Celestial Wizard but you wrote ideas specifically for them in the guild shows. The fox can't stop sitting on your lap any chance he gets and despite his attitude, the bird always seems to be one of the first ones to defend you in a situation that revolves around combat." Baurs explained.

"...He prefers to be called a crow, you know?" Bernard said with a half smile.

"Seems like something someone who cares would say. Yet you seem completely fine with just handing them over to a random other Celestial Wizard?" Baurs asked with curiosity.

"...Hey, I can't take care of them, I'm hardly a wizard as it is and I don't have the ability to use Celestial Spirit keys." Bernard said as he rubbed his hands in an unsure manner.

"Well here's another question; do you plan on running away from Psycho Circus again?" Baurs asked as Bernard fell quiet. "I've also heard about what you said about what to do with the slime demon in your pacemaker. About putting it under a rock?" She continued.

"...Well, I was... In the heat of the moment when I said that because I didn't know what I was going to do with Formosa after I already got to Magnolia with them so..." Bernard said, trying to explain his reasoning.

"Do you still feel like that's the right call to make? After you put in the effort to train myself and the others in learning an act for the Balsamicos?" Baurs continued to ask.

"Well... I..." Bernard stuttered, still struggling to find answers.

"What about me? Do you plan to forgo our agreement in the future as well?" Baurs wondered as Bernards eyes widened.

"...I..." Bernard stuttered once more.

"Shall I give my personal opinion?" Baurs said as Bernard fell silent again, quietly processing her words. "Originally, before we came out here, I thought you might have had some ulterior motive for doing this job for Camilla. You have altruistic tendencies like when you destroyed Cercis for the sake of the townsfolk in Hemlock, or when you saved the baby from that dark guild so a part of me believed you might have came out here to help the people in the town... I'm a tad disappointed that you are choosing to act more like a child at the mere sight of opportunity to run away from the things that you might actually yearn for." She said.

Feeling like he was hit with a ton of bricks, Bernard stood still and merely stared at the large rock lizard as her words slammed into him all at once, the gears turning in his head as the weight of her words fell on him and making him need to think deeper about what he truly wants.

_"What... What do I want here...?"_ Bernard thought as Baurs proceeded to shift her tail over and push away some of the left over skulls that still had shades left inside them. "Hey? Can I ask you something else?" He asked.

"Certainly." Baurs stated plainly.

"...Hypothetically speaking... Why do you think I should stay in Psycho Circus?" Bernard asked. _"I... Want to hear another opinion..."_ He thought anxiously.

"You have a life in Psycho Circus." Baurs said as Bernard listened, taking her opinion with utmost seriousness. "You have people that respect you and like you for whom you are. You have a talent that is best utilized there as well as a way for you to develop the relationships around you, especially with those that care the most." She continued as Bernard looked towards the cellar door.

"I... Never really wanted to think of it like that..." Bernard said as he sat down on the ground. "Every time I think of the guild since I got my pacemaker, I always associate it with the bleak parts of my childhood and my fathers stupid "plan" for me..." He said as he looked towards the Lacrima in his chest.

"I don't know much about guilds or how they work but given what I have seen in the time I have spent walking around the guildhall of Psycho Circus, I don't see why you should be afraid of trying to go higher than what you can already accomplish." Baurs said as Bernard looked at her as he put his hand on his Lacrima. "I believe it's time you started making new memories and develop a new outlook on Psycho Circus. May I voice one more opinion?" She asked.

"Sure..." Bernard said as he looked at her.

"I think you'd be a better guild master than your father." Baurs said as Bernards eyes widened.

"...Wha-what?" Bernard replied.

"Judging by his actions, I can tell your father likes to fool around and hides his motivations until they end up the way he plans for it to happen, a natural born schemer. You're more outspoken and brash when you see something that you plainly want. You put others above yourself more often than you realistically should, given your condition. I think that's where people have developed the respect for you and your opinions." Baurs stated as Bernard proceeded to put his hands on his eyes, rubbing his palms into his sockets.

"...Sh-shut up..." Bernard said with a tone of sadness as his hands tried to hide back signs of tears.

"If that's what you wish." Baurs stated plainly as Bernard shook his head.

"No, no... You can talk, it's just… Damn it all... Why'd you end up having to be so profound all of a sudden?" Bernard said with a smirk and tears in his eyes.

"I agreed to work for you and provide you with positive results. If I didn't give you what I thought was the right thing to say, I would be doing a terrible job." Baurs stated casually as Bernard started to giggle.

"Pfff… Hehehe... Yeah, that's just how you are..." Bernard said with a chuckle. _"Corvus... Vulp... You guys... You don't want to leave the guild after all huh?... Or for that matter, me..." _He thought as he looked towards the cellar once again.

"It's a draining experience to be saddled with this much grief, correct?" Baurs said.

"Yeah, it's really-...Wait... "Draining?"' Bernard said until he formed an epiphany from what Baurs said, prompting him to look at her with surprise.

"Something wrong?" Baurs asked.

"Draining... Like... Wait a minute..." Bernard said aloud as he thought back to earlier when the first shadow creature had appeared. _"It went straight through me, didn't even attack anyone else and then immediately ran... I felt tired after it did that and then it..."_ He thought as his eyes widened as he looked at the skulls on the ground that still hadn't been touched. "Baurs… I'm going to activate another skull but don't destroy the dark ghost thing, got it?"

"Beg your pardon?" Baurs said confused as Bernard stood up and walked over to one of the skulls, touching it as dark energy begun to radiate from it and morphed into another shadow creature with the hood and claws.

Standing completely still, Bernard watched as the shadow proceeded to rush straight for him and pass straight through his body like the one did to him prior, Bernard falling to his knees after it occurred. After going through his sternum, the shadow quickly floated past Bernard and Baurs, rushing up the stairs.

"...It's... Not the ghost... These things we have been destroying... Aren't the ghost. After it!" Bernard shouted as he quickly rushed up the stairs from his tired state and with Baurs following behind.

"Wait! It's too dangerous!" Baurs shouted as she followed Bernard up to an upper floor area as Bernard chased the shadow to the room with the full skeleton laying on the bed, the shadow phasing through the wall as Bernard swung the door open to notice the shadow creature looming over the skeleton. Placing its hands over skeleton, a magic circle then appeared over the skeleton as the empty sockets in the skull begun to glow as the skeletons skull twisted in the direction of Bernard and Baurs, who looked on in shock.

"...Finally..." Said a mysteriously elderly voice that echoed throughout the room. "I have... Enough... Powwwweeeerrr!" The voice screamed as its sound reverberated and shook the guildhall with the force of a tremor.

"Run! Run! Run!" Bernard repeatedly screamed as he quickly shut the door to the room as he and Baurs sprinted away back to the foyer area, running down the stairs.

Looking back, Bernard saw an incredibly large clawed white hand crashing through the wall as he ran down the stairs of the foyer with Baurs rushing behind him.

"Gahahaha!" An echoing laugh roared though the empty guildhall as the large white claw continued to stretch to the top of the foyer, clawing along the floor. "Finally... I am free!" The echoing voice said as Bernard and Baurs looked up at the large claw.

Back in the cellar, Corvus and Vulp were still sitting around depressed until they overheard the tremoring laugh throughout the building, causing them to jerk their heads around in fear.

"The hell was that?!" Corvus said as he flapped his wings into the air and he and Vulp quickly rushed to the foyer to see Bernard and Baurs, wide eyed in shock as they looked up as a large circular and white creature begun to phase through the ceiling and walls, connected to the large white claw they originally saw. "Kid!?" The crow exclaimed as they flew over to Bernard and Baurs.

"...I think I might have jumped the gun here..." Bernard said with a nervous expression as the large white creature was now sticking out of the foyer space.

Floating above the ground of the foyer was a giant ghostly white spirit with a set of two large claws as a blue mouth formed with a set of clawed teeth and a pair of eyes with black sclera and tiny dot-like corneas staring Bernard and the creatures. As well, the purple symbol of the Phantom Lord guild had also formed on the forehead area, above the eyes.

"Yes!... Yes! That little bit of energy finally filled me up!" The evil looking spirit exclaimed with a dark smile as the others looked on at it.

"The... Hell?" Corvus said as he and the others looked at it as the ghost shifted its eyes towards the skulls on the ground.

"Won't be needing these things anymore." The ghost said as it reached one of its huge claws down, grabbed the remaining skulls with the shadow creatures in them and crushed the leftovers in its palms into dust as the dark energy from the skulls went directly into the mouth of the ghost, absorbing it.

_"...Guess my theory might have been correct..."_ Bernard thought as he swallowed spit. "Guys... Return to me... Now." He whispered as the creatures turned their heads towards him.

"What? No, we can't leave you by yourself." Corvus said as he looked towards Bernard.

"Actually wait, hold on..." Bernard said as he looked up at the ghost. "Hey!" He shouted, catching the ghosts attention.

"Oh?" The giant evil looking ghost said as he looked at Bernard.

"Are you who I think you are?" Bernard questioned.

"...Considering I have you to thank for freeing me from the prison of bones I was trapped in for several years, I may as well give you the time of day..." The ghost said as he smiled at Bernard, sweat beginning to form on the beanie sporting wizards face.

"...Are you the former guild master of Phantom Lord? Jose Porla?" Bernard asked as the ghost grinned more wildly.

"Looks like someone has a decent head on their shoulders... And a lot of energy saved within... Hehehe." The ghost said, revealing himself to be Jose Porla, former Wizard Saint and guild master of the defunct Phantom Lord guild.

"...He's an actual phantom now… There's a joke somewhere in there." Corvus said nervously as he and Vulp looked up at the evil spirit.

"I don't think now's the time for humor, Corvus." Baurs said.

"Guys... Come on... Come back now..." Bernard said as he stepped back slightly, fear making him more jittery and ready to run for his life.

"Not a good idea, kid..." Corvus said as he flew back slightly in a similar fashion with Vulp and Baurs doing it too.

"...Corvus... We're going to have a serious talk later... You, me and Vulp... But you need to trust me right now..." Bernard said as he swallowed spit.

"Not sure I can..." Corvus said as the giant Jose ghost licked his lips with a dark gaze and a wicked grin.

"Come here, I'll make your death quick and painless in exchange for the magical power." Jose said as reached his hands out.

"Run!" Bernard screamed as Corvus and Vulp turned into light particles and entered Bernards pacemaker as Baurs turned into her bracelet form as Bernard ran.

"Raaghh!" Jose screamed as Bernard ran underneath his floating ghost form as Bernard ran up the stairs.

_"The shadows were evil energy siphons! The clothes and bones are victims! His giant form is a mass of magic with an old man face! I'm happy to know I cracked the case but I want to live long enough to enjoy the fact!" _Bernard thought wildly as he ran through the hallways of the upper areas of the guildhall.

"Get back here!" Jose screamed as his body phased through the floors as he reached his arms to attempt to grab Bernard, the young beanie wearing wizard ducking and weaving as he ran up the multiple flights of stairs until he finally reached the roof, panting with exhaustion.

"...Damn... Lack of... Being in shape..." Bernard said as he struggled to breathe, hunched over as light particles begun to appeared from his chest and the rock bracelet enlarging. Shifting and transforming into Corvus, Vulp and Baurs, respectively.

"Hey, you alright?!" Corvus exclaimed as the others looked at him with concern.

"...If we make it out of this... Never ask me to run a marathon..." Bernard said tired. "The old ghost is heading up soon... You guys okay?" He said as he dusted himself off.

"As I can be." Baurs stated as Vulp nodded before Bernard looked towards Corvus.

"...I'm still a bit buzzed." Corvus said with a disgruntled look in his eyes before Bernard pointed at him.

"We're going to get out of this... And when we do... We're talking..." Bernard said as he pointed at Corvus and then towards Vulp as the Celestial Spirits looked at eachother with surprise.

"...Okay... Yeah, I got some things I gotta say too." Corvus said as his surprised face turned to one of seriousness.

"First things first, we gotta get out of here and find Camilla." Bernard said with a serious tone as Vulp looked at Bernard with Baurs looking around, standing guard.

"But I thought we weren't supposed to get help from her?" Corvus replied.

"Given what's happening right now, I think we need all the help we can get. I don't think we can take on Jose by ourselves... I've heard Fairy Tail almost couldn't beat him without their guild master pulling out an intense spell or something." Bernard said as he rubbed his neck in an anxious manner.

"It seems the deal you made with her isn't important anymore?" Baurs said as Bernard looked at the rock lizard with a face full of embarrassment.

"Like I said, we'll talk later about it! We gotta- Crap!" Bernard said loudly until he noticed something that caught his unfortunate attention.

As they talked, the roof was suddenly was encased in a series of purple magic circles as a barrier of dark energy was erected around the upper area of the guildhall. Looking down towards the ground, the group noticed the massive ghost of Jose phase through the floor and was now floating above them.

"Ahhh… Feels so good to be able to use my magic once again! I've missed being able to do these kinds of things!" Jose said as he enjoyed the feeling of power he was exuding.

"...Kid?" Corvus said with a serious expression.

"Yup?" Bernard questioned.

"Power... And lots of it." Corvus said as Bernard raised his hands, transferring his energy into Corvus, Baurs and Vulp. In response, Corvus begun to spark up red and white electricity and Vulps fur begun to spike up.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Oak Town, 3:57 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Walking through the streets of the town, Camilla had a troubled mentality about what she just did. Staring at the object in her hands, she breathed a sigh of annoyance as she moved one of her hands and rubbed her forehead in frustration.

_"...This is so stupid. Why did I buy this thing?" _Camilla thought as she looked in her hands and gazed at the Obedience Collar that she had purchased. _"That obnoxious store clerk probably overcharged me too."_ She continued to think as an image of the store clerk with a greedy smile flashed through her head. "Ugh, this wasn't a good idea to buy this thing but... I still don't know if he will-... Oh no..." Camilla said aloud to herself until she looked upward.

Looking up towards the old Phantom Lord guildhall at the top of the town, Camilla looked towards the roof of the guildhall and saw the large purple and black magical barrier encompassing the top of the guild.

"Bernard!" Camilla exclaimed aloud as she put away the Obedience Collar and ran towards the abandoned guild. _"Damn it, forget the deal! This is too serious now!" _She thought as she sprinted.

* * *

**I believe that ghosts exist, something has to be out there right? Well... Hopefully something that isn't interested in draining magical energy from young wizards with beanies. There was some tension between the team and the Celestial Spirits tried to drown their sorrows in the good stuff but Bernard and Baurs had a conversation to finally give Bernard a different viewpoint on his situation but everything, like usual, suddenly came undone as the shades got enough energy to reawaken their master, Jose Porla, the former Wizard Saint, from the dead. Now trapped on the roof with the massive ghost form of Jose, Bernard and his beastly allies were now stuck in a proverbial "bad spot." Can Bernard and his creature team defeat the former Phantom Lord guild master in his monstrous form by themselves? Find out next time on Menagerie!**

**Authors Note: (As usual... Thank you for being patient with me. Wow we are almost at 50 chapters... I never thought I would see the day I could muster that up.) **


	49. Chapter 49

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Former Phantom Lord Guildhall, 4:06 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Ragh!" The ginormous ghost form of Jose Porla screamed as he swung his hand up, coated in a purple and black energy field.

"Everyone! Disperse!" Bernard exclaimed as he, Baurs, Vulp and Corvus all rushed out of the way as a torrent of small magical energy attacks begun to rain down over them.

As the beams of energy shot into the floor, Bernard quickly pointed his fingers in the direction of Baurs, Corvus and Vulp.

"Baurs, Vulp, to me! Corvus! Use your lightning!" Bernard instructed as Baurs and Vulp rushed to his side.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Corvus exclaimed as he flew upward towards Jose, his body radiating electricity. "Get zapped, you stupid specter!" The crow screamed as he unleashed his red and white lightning strikes in the direction of Jose.

With a smirk on his face, the large Jose floated patiently in the air as the bolts of lightning went directly through his body and struck the barrier encasing the roof.

"The hell!?" Corvus said in shock as Bernard and the others looked on in surprise.

"It went through his body!" Baurs said loudly.

"That all you got?" Jose said with an evil smugness as he reached his large hand outward and tried to grab the crow Celestial Spirit.

"Oh no you don't!" Corvus said defiantly as he quickly started to evade Joses grasp, distracting the large ghost.

"So lightning won't work..." Bernard said aloud as Vulp stood in front of him and Baurs stood behind him. _"Really is a ghost... He can go incorporeal..."_ He thought as he tried to think of some way to defeat the apparition form of the former Wizard Saint. "Baurs, your turn!" Bernard said as Baurs stepped forward.

"Here we go." Baurs said as she begun to spit blasts of mud from her mouth towards Jose, the sprays passing through the ghosts body as Jose noticed the Earth Elemental attempting to attack him as he stopped trying to grab Corvus.

"Oh? What have we here?" Jose said with a disinterested tone as he reached out his hand once more and grabbed Baurs by her tail, Bernard and Vulp jumping back to avoid being snatched. "A little creature from the ground? Is this really all you have to offer me?" Jose said with a smug tone as he shifted his eyes towards Bernard, mocking his abilities as Bernard grimaced in aggravation.

Twisting his massive wrist, Jose casually tossed Baurs aside, throwing her into the wall of the barrier as she came crashing down back to the ground, leaving cracks in the rooftop. Looking at her with concern, Bernard pointed his fingers at Baurs and transferred energy to her, to help speed up her recovery.

_"We can't touch him but he can touch us... This is definitely not- Good!?" _Bernard thought as he shifted his gaze upward and noticed that Jose raised one of his hands into a fist. With Vulp biting on his pantleg, the fox pulled his magical benefactor out of the way as Jose slammed his closed fist down onto the roof, leaving a large crater in the roof.

"Hehe- Huh?" Jose chuckled until he noticed more lightning was attempting to strike him as he moved towards the direction of Corvus, continuing to fire lightning at the massive evil spirit. "I'm getting tired of you, you obnoxious bird." Jose said with annoyance as he waved his hands slightly, covered in magical energy.

"I'm not a bird! I'm a- Huh?" Corvus shouted angrily until he noticed some of the dark energy from Joses hand begun to take shape and turned into black shadow creatures with hoods, glowing red eyes and long claws. "These things again!?" The crow exclaimed in surprise as the shadows begun to take swipes at Corvus, prompting the crow to fly away to avoid taking damage.

"My Shades are powerful ghostly soldiers that I have the ability to make with my magic." Jose said casually as he watched Corvus play "cat and mouse" with a cabal of Shades chasing him around.

_"So those things were an extension of his power... He's way more powerful than I thought, even in this spirit form." _Bernard thought with concern as he looked up at Corvus continuing to dodge attacks by the Shades. Shifting his gaze towards Vulp, Bernard looked at the fox with a troubled expression as the fox Celestial Spirit looked at his friend. "Doubt you're gonna have much luck..." He said to the fox as Vulp made an angered expression as he took his tail and changed it into a blade.

Spinning his body, Vulp took a series of swings at the ghost as they continually phased through Joses body.

"Bahahahahaha!" Jose laughed as Vulp angrily continued to strike at Jose but to no avail. "Do you not understand what "phantoms" even are?! You can't even touch me!" The ghost bellowed in a haughty attitude as Bernard grew more frustrated.

"Vulp! Stop it!" Bernard screamed as Vulp stopped swinging at Jose. _"Mud didn't work, lightning isn't working and Vulps blades don't do crap, how we supposed to fight him!?" _He thought with a troubled mentality as he struggled with figuring out how to destroy Jose.

"Get away from me!" Corvus shouted as he released more of his electricity and disintegrated the Shades into nothing. "Gah!" The crow exclaimed as he continued launching more lightning towards Jose but with zero results.

"Stop it Corvus! That's not going to work on him!" Bernard screamed at Corvus as the crow continued to shoot lightning at Jose, each bolt passing through his ghostly form.

"Boring. Beat it, bird." Jose said with an a disinterested tone as he raised his hand up and fired a large beam of dark energy towards Corvus, causing the Celestial Spirit to fall out of the air and towards the roof.

"Oh no! I gotcha!" Bernard said as he rushed to grab Corvus before he hit the ground. "You okay?!" Bernard asked in a concerned tone.

"Been... Better..." Corvus said in pain.

"Hold on, maybe I can help..." Bernard said as he started to pool some of his energy into Corvus. "Better?" He asked.

"Somewhat." Corvus said as he started to feel slightly better as Bernard and Corvus turned around and noticed Vulp was taking swings at Jose once again with his tail and Baurs was spitting mud at the ghost once more.

"Enough of this!" Jose screamed as he lifted his giant ghostly hands and swung them towards the fox and the Earth Elemental, backhanding them into the walls of the magical barrier around the roof.

"Guys!" Bernard exclaimed as Corvus flew out of his hands.

"Kid! Call the big guy!" Corvus said loudly.

"I can't, its attacks might not work either! And besides..." Bernard said before shifting his gaze down, prompting Corvus to look as well.

"What are you... Oh no..." Corvus said as he looked and noticed what Bernard was looking at.

Beneath Bernards feet, cracks and indents in the roof were made amidst the fight, giving Bernard a feeling of nervousness at the stability of the structure he was standing on.

_"I can't call out Formosa like this... Its gigantic size and weight might break the floor beneath and we'll fall all the way back down to the foyer..." _Bernard thought with sweat rolling down his face as he struggled to think. Looking upward, Bernard then noticed Joses giant right claw reaching down and grabbing him, his upper body sticking out of the top of Joses closed hand.

"You can't touch me but I can touch you. Now, now... How about sharing some of that magic with someone who really needs it?" Jose said with his evil smile as he started to inhale deeply.

_"What is he- Grugh!..."_ Bernard thought as he suddenly felt his energy begin to deplete slowly.

Stuck in Joses hand, Bernards magical power was beginning to flow out of his body and into the mouth of Jose as the phantom was inhaling it, sucking it out of the beanie sporting wizard. As his energy begun to flow out, Bernard became exhausted from his power leaving him.

"Kid!" Corvus exclaimed as he, Vulp and Baurs looked on. _"What're we supposed to do?! We can't hit this guy with any of our attacks!" _The crow thought as they couldn't help Bernard.

Shifting himself to try and free himself, Bernard continued to struggle to escape before Jose could bleed him dry of his magical power. Stretching his arm, Bernard managed to stick his own hand out and placed his hand on the giant claw crushing him, attempting to push himself out but to no avail.

"Bahaha! Struggle all you want, you're going to give me all of that magical power you've been hiding!" Jose screamed in a maniacal fashion.

_"If I don't... Do something, he's gonna... Start taking it all... From my... Pacemaker..."_ Bernard thought as his consciousness started to fade.

His hand still on Joses grasp, Bernard started to give out some of his energy.

_"I know this won't work but... I gotta try!" _Corvus thought as made a face of anger and he sparked up some more of his electricity.

"That's not going to work Corvus! We need to come up with another-" Baurs said before Corvus cut her off.

"Shut up! I don't care at this point!" Corvus screamed in defiance as he shot another bolt of lightning at Jose Porla.

"As if that- Gah!" Jose said with a smirk until something different happened.

The bolt of lightning had managed to strike Jose directly on his face, a feeling of pain causing the large ghost to take his free hand and place it where Corvus struck him. A look of surprise on his face forming as Joses hand loosened slightly as Bernard took the opportunity and slipped out of the ghosts grasp.

"Vulp!" Corvus screamed as Vulp quickly rushed towards where Bernard was falling as he split his tail into a series of tendrils, launching them towards Bernard and grabbing him before he hit the ground.

"Kid!" Corvus exclaimed as the creatures crowded around him to check on him as Bernard winced in pain.

"I'm... I- what... What happened?" Bernard stuttered before he looked around at his beastly allies, grabbing his head in his dazed state.

"I don't know. Out of nowhere, Corvus' attack suddenly worked." Baurs said as Bernard looked at Corvus.

"Hell if I know, it just worked." Corvus said with a shrug as Vulp got close to Bernard, checking on him.

Looking at Vulp and then putting his hand on his head to pet him, Bernards eyes widened as he picked his hand up off Vulp and stared at his palms for a good second. Shifting his eyes left and right, he formed an idea in his head as he tried to stand up.

"Baurs, get ready!" Bernard said as he looked up at Jose, still rubbing the part of his face where he was zapped.

"Ugh, how the..." Jose said as shifted his large eyes back towards Bernard and his team before Bernard pointed his energy from his hands towards Jose again. _"He's... Giving me his power?"_ The phantom thought as he noticed Bernard gave him a portion of his magical power.

"Aim for the eyes!" Bernard shouted as Baurs opened her mouth and fired a spray of mud towards Joses left eye, hitting the large ghost in the socket and causing the gargantuan ghost to float backwards till he hit the wall of the barrier around the roof.

"Gah! My eye!" Jose screamed as he tried to wipe the brown gunk out of his eye.

"That worked too?! What's going on?!" Corvus said in surprise as Vulps eyes widened.

"...It's my energy... From the Lacrima! It's my energy specifically! It's causing him to be corporeal because of my transferring thing!" Bernard said the creatures in realization as Bernard put his hands up once more and gave them his power to be ready to fight.

"You... Little... Bastard!" Jose screamed as he angrily looked at Bernard and his team as he reached his hands out towards the group.

Unleashing his lightning once more, Corvus zapped Joses hands away as he recoiled from the shock.

"Bagh! What?!" Jose said in surprise. _"They're actually managing to strike back, I shouldn't be able to be hit in this form!" _Jose thought as Vulp quickly ran forward with his tail, splitting it into multiple fists and stretching them out to repeatedly strike the ghost. "Bagh! Gugh! Plah!" The phantom grunted.

"Keep it up Vulp! Baurs, push him back!" Bernard said as Baurs opened her mouth and shot another torrent of mud once again, pushing Jose against the barrier once more. "Corvus! You too!" He exclaimed.

"Like I said already! You don't have to tell me twice!" Corvus said with a smirk as he blasted another bolt of lightning into Jose, the continued onslaught of attacks smashing him repeatedly into the barrier wall.

"E-enough!" Jose shouted as he swung his arm back and swatted away Corvus' lightning, Baurs' mud and Vulps tail fists.

Raising his hand up, Jose slammed his hand down on the roof with enough force to cause the roof to begin to crack under Bernard and his pets feet.

"Oh no..." Bernard said as he looked down and noticed the rumbling underneath him.

With the roof crumbling, Bernard and his pets fell through the large hole in the roof as they begun to plummet back down to the foyer.

'"Aaahhhh!"' Bernard, Corvus, Vulp and Baurs shrieked as they continued to fall.

"Corvus! Grab Vulp! Baurs! Use your mud to slow down your fall!" Bernard screamed as he pointed towards the creatures.

"What about you?!" Corvus said as they fell.

"I got a plan!" Bernard said. _"God, I hope this works..."_ He thought with a bit of sweat rolling down his face as Corvus flew over to grab Vulp and Baurs twisted to the side and begun to spray down her mud to soften her landing.

Reaching into his shirt, Bernard pressed multiple times on his Lacrima pacemaker as Formosas fluid begun to come out of his clothes. Forming into its massive golem-like shape, Formosa had appeared around Bernards body as everyone continued to fall until Formosa hit the ground before everyone else, splattering with Bernard safely inside its slime body.

"Kid!? You okay?!" Corvus exclaimed as he carried Vulp in his talons down to the foyer floor as Baurs landed on the ground with a spritz of the mud from her mouth slowing her descent.

Wildly flailing his arms to swim out, Bernard quickly pushed himself through Formosas slime body as landed on the floor, heavily breathing and gasping for air as the other creatures approached him. As they got closer, Formosa reformed into its large golem form.

"I... Really want to go... Home now..." Bernard said on his back as breathed heavily.

"I would like to as well but..." Corvus said until he tilted head up, prompting the others to look as the giant ghost of Jose floated down towards the foyer, an angry expression forming on the specters face. "Don't think the fights over yet..." The crow said nervously as Baurs and Vulp stood ready as Bernard tried to get to his feet.

"You annoying little brat... You think just because your magic can stop me from being able to phase through these creatures attacks, you think it makes you superior to me? I've spent years of my afterlife waiting for the day I can become able to take a form capable of getting back my lost time! And I won't let some worthless punk with a bunch of monsters and demons working for him keep me from getting what I want most!" Jose screamed as his body glowed with dark energy as he opened his mouth wide.

"Oh come on! What now!?" Corvus complained as Bernard and the others looked up.

From the mouth of Jose, a horde of Joses Shades had begun to emerge and float into the air above the group as his large body started to decrease in size, now appearing as small as a soccer ball. Dozens upon dozens of Shades flew above the room, their claws sharp and outstretched, their eyes glowing red and their bodies exuding black smoke everywhere.

"These things again..." Corvus said as he sparked up more electricity.

_"There's so many..."_ Bernard thought.

"He shrunk." Baurs said as she noticed the smaller form of Jose, prompting Bernard to take notice.

_"Wait... He is smaller now... But why?" _Bernard thought as he became perplexed by the sudden turn of events.

"Kid, please tell me you have more energy to spare before you start dipping into the "heart well?"' Corvus asked nervously as Bernard rubbed his chest.

"...Not much before I have to dip..." Bernard said hesitantly. _"He shrunk because... Wait..."_ He thought before turning his gaze back to Joses smaller ghostly form and then turned his head back to look at Formosa, who was still immobile.

"With all these Shades at my disposal, their excess energy I've amassed will allow me to be as powerful as a Battle God! All that's left is finish you off and then take my leave. Hehehe!" Jose maniacally exclaimed.

_"The Shades... They're where the magic is stockpiled... So if I... Oh this is gonna hurt a lot..."_ Bernard thought as he bit his lip and made a face of determination. "Guys, your gonna wanna get down." Bernard said, catching the attention of the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental.

"Whatcha mean?" Corvus said as he, Vulp and Baurs looked at Bernard.

"Our "last ditch effort," if you know what I mean?" Bernard said as he pointed his hands at Formosa, feeding energy into the slime demon as its body wriggled from the receival of power. "Formosa! Parade form!" He shouted as Formosa begun to change shape.

'"Parade-" what?" Jose said in confusion as the others looked on with confusion.

From its golem form, Formosa begun to alter its shape and size down into a long blob-like form, its viscous fluid shaped like a long log of blue, red and black sludge. As it took this form, the bone spikes of Formosas body begun to jut out of different spots along it and more bone-like appendages begun to emerge, sticking out of the sludge like pieces of an armored shell. Lastly, the normal singular green pair of eyes that Formosa sported had multiplied into a series of tiny green eyes that were scattered around the massive round mass of bone armor, spikes and ooze.

"What happened to the demon?" Baurs asked in surprise.

"Back at the Balsamicos, when we were practicing the routine, I thought about using Formosa in a more festive manner but then I realized something that wouldn't work indoors at the castle for the show." Bernard explained as he took a knee from exhaustion. "Formosas laser attack multiplied would probably be a terrible laser light show if it pierced everything in sight!" He said with an angry smile as looked at Jose.

'"Multiple?" Wait... Hit the deck!" Corvus screamed as he realized what Bernard meant.

As soon as he said screamed, Bernard and the creatures all pressed their chests to the ground. While on the ground, the multiple green eyes of Formosa begun to glow as orbs of energy begun to form above them, radiating energy.

"Wait, what is it doing!?" Jose screamed in bewilderment as Formosa's parade form begun to charge up multiple smaller laser attacks instead of one massive beam like normal.

"Fire!" Bernard screamed as Formosa launched a myriad of green laser blasts in multiple directions, piercing the walls like holes in cheese and slamming it into the Shades, one by one they dispersed into nothingness as the blasts continued getting lobbed off by the slime demon. As the Shades fell, Jose ducked and weaved from the blasts as Bernard and his team were laid out on the floor to avoid being hit.

_"No! My Shades! They have the magic I stored up!" _Jose thought as he continued to dodge the laser blasts as he watched his ghostly soldiers disappear with the magic he had absorbed.

"Forget the annoying painter jerk! This would have definitely got the old pucker lipped guy mad at us!" Corvus screamed as the lasers kept getting shot off from the armored parade float-like Formosa.

"That's why I didn't use it!" Bernard screamed as Vulp shimmied over to Bernards side to protect him as Baurs and Corvus laid on their chests.

As the beams continued to shoot off, the Shades continued to be destroyed until they were all gone but the lasers continued to be shot off from Formosa and begun to blast through the guildhall, destroying parts of the floor and infrastructure.

"If this keeps up, the guildhall will fall on top of us!" Baurs exclaimed loudly as Bernard turned around towards where Formosa was attacking, crawling along the ground to avoid being hit.

Sticking his hand inside the slime, Bernard let loose more of his energy to control the slime beast as it slowly begun to stop firing off lasers.

"...Finally... Done... Ugh..." Bernard said before passing out on the ground from his fatigue.

"Kid!?" Corvus said with surprise as Vulp rushed over to Bernards side to check on him.

"He appears to still be breathing." Baurs said as she approached.

"Good to hear- Hey!" Corvus said until he turned around and noticed the tiny specter form of Jose attempting to float away up the guildhall.

"Guh!" Jose grunted as he noticed they saw him. _"No! No! No! This was not how it was supposed to go!" _Jose thought with frustration forming as he attempted to float away to safety.

Suddenly, as he tried to get away, a yellow barrier box formed around his spectral form as he went face first into one of the panel walls of the box he was in as the box hit the stairs and begun to fall down it, bouncing off each step.

"What the?!" Jose said loudly in anger as he tried to force himself out of the barrier. "How is this possible?! Nothing should hold me!" The ghost exclaimed as he looked forward as Corvus, Vulp and Baurs turned around to notice Camilla had entered the guildhall, her body radiating magical energy.

"Where do you think you're going?" Camilla said with an angry expression on her face as she looked at Jose in the box she created.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" Corvus said as he flew up to Camilla.

"Not now Corvus, now where is- Bernard?!" Camilla said until she turned her head and noticed Bernards unconscious body on the floor, prompting her to rush over to him.

Kneeling down, Camilla lifted his head slightly and placed it on her lap as she turned him to a face up position.

"Hey, you guys watch him. I'll take care of Bernard." Camilla said as Vulp, Corvus and Baurs looked over at Jose stuck in the barrier box, a face full of nervousness on the ghost as the creatures looked at him with anger.

As Camilla looked at Bernards unconscious face, she reached behind her and pulled out the Obedience Collar once again, shifting her gaze between the collar and her boyfriend.

_"I could put this on him... And... Oh... And he'll get mad... But..."_ Camilla thought with conflicted emotions as she slowly descended the collar towards Bernards neck.

"...What're you doing?" Said a familiar voice that spooked Camilla into dropping the collar out of her hands onto the ground as she looked down and noticed the slowly opening eyes of Bernard.

"Ah-uh! Ber-Bernard, you okay?" Camilla stuttered hesitantly as she looked at Bernard as he put his hand on his head.

"When did you get here?" Bernard said while still on Camillas lap.

"I uhhh… Saw the big barrier on the roof from the town and rushed over here, I uhhh… Thought you could use some help." Camilla said as Bernard sat up, quietly grabbing the collar and hiding it before he noticed it.

"Where-where's Jose?" Bernard said as he looked around at the mess Formosa caused, the slime beast still lingering around in parade form. Looking over at the box, the creatures turned around to notice their magical benefactor was now awake as they quickly rushed towards him, Vulp notably jumping on him in a show of happiness.

"He's over there, I put him in a box..." Camilla said as she pointed at Jose.

_"Well, now I can just destroy him..." _Bernard said as he looked back at Formosa and then towards Jose. "Actually..." He said aloud as the others looked at him. "Can you guys do something real quick?" He said as he looked Camilla and the others.

"What now?" Baurs asked.

"I think the stairs is still fine, I think as I ran up when I got away from Jose, I saw more bodies we might have missed." Bernard said in a sure tone.

"Bodies?" Camilla said confused.

"Long story but you think we missed some? We combed a lot of the place." Corvus said.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure of what I saw." Bernard said as Camilla stood up.

"I guess I could go?" Camilla said as Corvus flew up to her.

"Yeaaahhh, let me show you around." Corvus said in a flirty tone.

"Soon as we get upstairs, we're splitting up." Camilla said annoyed as she walked away with Baurs and Vulp following her.

"Oh come on, you haven't been in here! It's not like you know where you're going!" Corvus said in a complaining tone as they all went upstairs.

Bernard, making sure they went out of sight, walked over to Formosa and commanded the slime demon to return to his pacemaker before turning his attention to the ghost of Jose Porla, still trapped inside the barrier box. Walking over to it and catching the phantoms attention, Bernard proceeded to sit on the floor in front of the box.

"So Mr. Porla… Want to have a little chat about guilds?" Bernard said with a surprisingly casual tone as the specter raised an eyebrow.

* * *

**Anybody feel that? Damn, that gave me some serious goosebumps and wow... Parade Mode Formosa sounds freaky and incredibly dangerous. A grueling battle atop the roof of the guildhall, Bernard and his team tried to take on the evil spirit form of Jose Porla and was nearly going to die until they managed the impossible and got the W against Jose. ****With Camilla now sealing Jose in his tiny ghost form in a barrier box, Bernard sent his team and girlfriend away to talk with the ghost, but for what? Why does Bernard feel like talking to the disembodied phantom of all people? We'll find out next time on Menagerie! 50 Chapters and one year anniversary!**


	50. Chapter 50

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Former Phantom Lord Guildhall, 5:12 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Continuing to slam his small ghostly form against the inside of the clear yellow box he was encased in, Jose struggled to make his escape as Bernard looked on, sitting with a blank expression on his face as he watched Jose continue to hit the walls.

"Gaaah! Let me out of here!" Jose screamed from inside the box. _"This wasn't how it was supposed to be!"_ The ghost thought with frustration.

"Can't really do that, I don't have the key to the box you are in." Bernard said, mystified by Joses erratic behavior as the specter continued to thrash about.

"I was so close! I was finally free and you screwed everything up!" Jose said as he stopped banging against the barrier box before facing Bernard, making eye contact.

"And how is this my fault?" Bernard questioned as he put his hand on his cheek in a sign of disinterest.

"...If you had just let me take all of your energy, I would have been able to leave and-" Jose explained before Bernard cut him off.

"And if I had let you take my energy, I would be dead. I'm failing to see why I should have let you do that." Bernard casually said as Jose begun to make a disgruntled expression.

_"This child... Thinks he's so smart just because he managed to hold me off while that other wizard encased me in this magic box. If she comes back, I am deader than I already am... I gotta do something." _Jose thought as he continued to stare at the half closed eyes of Bernard. "Earlier..." The ghost said, catching Bernards attention. "You asked about "guilds," correct? Why would you ask such a undefined question?" Jose continued.

"Well..." Bernard mumbled as he looked up towards the stairs in the direction of where Camilla and his team of beasts went. "It's a long story but... Since I'm talking to a guild master, that isn't someone else I know, I figured I might be able to poke around at your brain- Oh wait, you're a ghost, you don't have one technically..." He said, inadvertently offending the deceased former Wizard Saint.

"Just get to your damn point! Kids these days... Always dragging things out." Jose said as he took his tiny ghost arms and folded them as he complained about Bernards stalling.

"Okay, that "dragging things out" bit really hurt, you know..." Bernard said with a twitch in his eye.

"Says the douchebag who encased one of the greatest wizards of his time in a box!" Jose shouted as Bernard stood up from the ground and proceeded to walk over to Joses box. "What do you think you're-Whaaaaaa!" The phantom continued in confusion until Bernard picked up Joses box and proceeded to violently shake the box in his arms, launching the ghost in all directions inside.

"I am not a douchebag!" Bernard retorted.

"Okay! I take it back, just stop shaking me!" Jose screamed, begging the beanie sporting wizard to stop.

After the specters apology, Bernard stopped and placed the box back down on the ground and taking a seat on the floor once more. Inside, Joses eyes were spinning in circles as he held his ghostly head in an effort to compose himself.

"Ugh... I think I am going to be sick..." Jose said in a groggy manner.

"It's the least of what you deserve..." Bernard said as he pointed at the piles of left over clothes all over the floor of the guildhall as Jose looked at what he was pointing towards.

"...Which ones are you referring to?" Jose said with a serious face as Bernard looked at the ghost.

"What does that mean?" Bernard questioned.

"Some of those clothes belonged to wizards who had came before you to try and exorcise me from this place, others are from old members of my Phantom Lord guild..." Jose said with a calm yet contemplative tone.

"So I was right then..." Bernard said as he looked at the piles of clothes. "The clothes belonged to the old members of your guild while the skeletons all over the place-" He continued until Jose spoke up.

"Are their remains, yes." Jose said with a serious tone. "At least, some of them, I mean." He continued.

"So... I'm guessing not everyone from Phantom Lord ended up here?" Bernard asked.

"Phantom Lord was an incredibly large guild with multiple satellite guildhalls stationed throughout the kingdom, the mere fact that I managed to control that many for as long as I did before I died was an impressive feat not many could attempt to pull off." Jose explained. "After a "certain event" in my life happened, the remaining loyalists to the guild after the dissolvement came here." He continued.

"And I am guessing others moved on?" Bernard said. _"This guy was way older than me and he still managed to be in charge of a guild with that many subsidiaries..."_ He thought.

"All but one of my top tier S-class wizards, the Element Four, had abandoned me to leave for other guilds. Including the Dragon Slayer we had..." Jose said, reminiscing of times long ago when he was alive.

'"One?"' Bernard questioned.

"In the room where you found my skeleton, there was clothes belonging to a large man in a green overcoat and fedora. His name was Aria and he was probably one of my most loyal wizards. Even after my greatest defeat, he stood by me." Jose explained as he remembered one of his most powerful wizards. "But sadly, he ended up like the rest... Fuel for my resurrection into a spirit." The ghost explained.

_"He's trying to make me feel sympathetic to his problems... Sorry but I don't feel remorse for rampaging murderous ghosts of dead wizards."_ Bernard thought as he continued to listen to Jose talk.

"I'd say it was... Nine? Ten years ago? It's difficult to remember this junk." Jose said with a disturbingly casual tone. "Our guilds Dragon Slayer attacked some members of the Fairy Tail guild and one thing led to another and we started a war." The ghost reminisced.

"I heard the story when I was a young teen, it was before my accident. People said you went crazy and tried to destroy Magnolia with a mech." Bernard said as he remembered the story.

'"Accident?"' Jose said with a raised brow.

"...Yeah, I had an accident when I was younger." Bernard said as he begrudgingly pulled his shirt down at the collar and revealed his Lacrima pacemaker to the evil spirit, who looked at it with a hint of surprise.

"...That Lacrima... I can sense its power, radiating off it. It's incredibly powerful..." Jose said as he stared at Bernards Lacrima before pulling his shirt back to normal. _"That explains how I was able to finally be freed from my skeleton, the energy this one has must be absurdly large from his own power mixed with this Lacrima..."_ He thought. "Where did you find something like that?" Jose questioned.

"Like I said, accident as a child and my father had worked a bunch to get me this from a local medicine man or I couldn't live a normal life." Bernard said as he bit his lip, not desiring to talk about his father.

"Who is he? To be able to get something like that Lacrima?" Jose said as he continued to look at it.

"...His name is Barnum O'Halloran, he is the guild master at Psycho Circus." Bernard said.

"Never heard of him. Or that guild, for that matter." Jose said as Bernard hung his head in annoyance.

_"Okay, calm down... Don't show too much anger..."_ Bernard thought with frustration as he hid his face from Jose.

_"His old man is a guild master which means he might be at the front of the line of leading it... And he has a powerful Lacrima in his chest that... This gives me an idea..."_ Jose thought as a smirk started to form on his face. "Life must be hard for you, isn't it?" The ghost asked as Bernard looked at the ghost after picking his head up.

"It has been somewhat... A lots on my mind these days..." Bernard said with a hard sigh. _"All this crap going on with this guy, I still haven't come up with a good way to talk to Corvus and Vulp about their issues... Or Camilla... I'm starting to think she's getting a bad impression of me again... And the others back home like Baurs said, I haven't been pulling an effort there but... God what am I doing?" _He thought as he scratched his head with a problematic expression.

_"And the "seed of doubt" has been placed... Hehehe."_ Jose thought with his dark grin forming. "It must be difficult having to deal with all those serious issues being at your guild, I can see the problems practically dripping off your face." Jose said with a serious tone.

"...How can you tell?" Bernard said with a curious tone.

"I was a guild master and Wizard Saint when I was still flesh and blood. One of my strongest assets in running Phantom Lord was my eye for talent and seeing their issues." Jose said. "Maybe we can strike up... A deal?" The phantom said.

_"A deal... Just like when Baurs agreed to work with me..." _Bernard thought as he locked eyes with the spirit.

"Why don't you let me out of this box and I can come back with you to your guild. I could help you, assist in ways to manage it." Jose said with a persuasive tone. _"If I can get out of here and get brought to his guild, I can use this opportunity to gain my power once again! I could even take over his body and use him as a flesh puppet for awhile!"_ Jose thought with a nefarious plan forming in his dark conscience.

_'"Help..." He wants to help-... Wait..."_ Bernard thought, contemplating his offer until he made a realization. _"This ghost spent the last few hours trying to kill me and now he wants to act all chummy with me... I might be tired but I'm still awake..." _He continued to mentally ponder the ghosts offer. "Thanks." He said to the ghost.

"Perfect! Then let me out of this box and we can shake hands on it-" Jose said until he noticed Bernard put his hand up.

"But no thanks." Bernard said bluntly as the ghost became bewildered by the sudden change.

"What!?" Jose exclaimed in a frustrated tone. "Why not!?" The ghost continued to shout.

"Because I doubt you could help me in what my guild does." Bernard said with half closed eyes. _"And I don't trust you."_ He thought.

"I was one of the greatest guild masters of my time! And-" Jose ranted until Bernard spoke up.

"And you aren't anymore." Bernard stated as Jose suddenly got quiet. "Right now, you are a spirit that has been draining the magical power of random people for years just to satisfy, what I can imagine is, a pointless vendetta against a guild who beat you and wound up making the Magic Council see your guild disbanded and your status as a Wizard Saint revoked." He explained as he looked at Jose, twitching with annoyance as the young man continued to speak.

"You're one to talk!" Jose exclaimed loudly. "I overheard your little talk with that Elemental earlier, about your pointless "feelings" for the other creatures and some obnoxious fluff about your friends and comrades caring about you when you don't show them any of the same respect. What gives you the right to look down on me?!" The ghost angrily retorted with Bernard wincing from how hard Jose was hitting him emotionally.

_"...I want to say I never did anything terrible to the people in my guild but I have before... They've forgiven me already but me... I still don't feel like I'm a member..."_ Bernard thought with conflicted feelings. _"Then there's Corvus and Vulp... Mostly everyone at Psycho Circus expects me something from me... And now those two want something from me too... And I'm the one skirting them all along..." _He thought as Jose continued to glare at him.

"Hey!" Jose shouted, catching Bernards attention as he was lost in thought. "Before you get even more lost in your own head, are we done talking about you and your problems enough to get to the point of your "guild" question?" The phantom said, an agitated look on his face.

"I don't have much to ask but... What was it like? Being a guild master?" Bernard said.

"That all?" Jose said with a raised brow. "That's one of the most banal questions I have ever heard." He said with a criticizing tone.

"Just answer the question..." Bernard said with a serious tone as he looked at Joses annoyed expression. "...Please." He continued, trying to be respectful to get a truthful answer.

_"...At least he showed a little respect, the punk." _Jose thought. "When I was in charge of Phantom Lord, I let the guildmembers have as much freedom as they desired, I only ever disciplined those that stepped out of line too much or became too much to handle but we did have our fair share of quitters back in the day." The ghost said with a noticeably calmer tone. "Even though my feud with Makarov from Fairy Tail was always a source of contention between me and him, we never went too far against one another until that fateful day that we did go to war over destroying their guildhall, attacking their members and nearly annihilating the townsfolk of Magnolia." He talked on.

"You were supposed to get along as guild masters, right?" Bernard asked.

"Correct... Guild masters not only have to look after relationships between their members but also between the masters of other wizards guilds. Monthly meetings in certain towns to discuss news and the sort are a regular occurrence in the job." Jose explained.

"Other guild masters... Are they just as strong as you were? When you were alive I mean?" Bernard questioned as Jose begun to chuckle.

"Please... Not every guild master is as great a wizard as I was. It's not about power that makes a good guild master, it's about direction." Jose said as Bernards eyes widened. "Any old wizard with an absurd amount of magical power can be a good candidate to lead a guild but that's not what matters in the long run, it's about what kinds of people are in that guild that they lead and how much the guild master can bring out of them. Loads of guilds have great wizards in them and some have terrible leaders in charge too." The phantom continued.

_"You don't need to be an amazing wizard just to be a great guild master..." _Bernard pondered as he continued to listen.

"A guild can be anything its members want it to be, some guilds perform extra tasks even to make extra money... Phantom Lord was known for its powerful wizards so we got loads of requests for monster extermination. I've heard tales from other masters of side gigs they would do at their guilds; opening up as restaurants, acting as host and hostess clubs-" Jose talked as Bernard spoke up.

"Operating as magic performers?" Bernard said, curious for an answer.

"Perhaps. I'm assuming that's what your guild does? Fitting, a guild with the name "Circus" in it having a carnival theme." Jose said casually.

_"...Minus the meetings stuff... He's telling me things I already kinda do..."_ Bernard said as he was deep in thought, spotting similarities between his managerial work in Psycho Circus and stuff that his father does.

"But the most important thing a guild master does..." Jose said, catching Bernards attention once again. "They look after their guildmembers. And the guildmembers look after their master... It's a collective effort." He stated.

_"A_ _collective..."_ Bernard thought as he clenched his fists, hearing more words out of the ghosts mouth that made him feel more and more uneasy. "No offense but..." He spoke up as Jose looked at him with an interested expression. "If a guild is supposed to be a "collective." Why did you throw yours out the window?" Bernard asked as Joses interested expression turned into one of anger.

"I was trying to assert my guilds superiority! And my guildmembers worked for the sake of proving that fact!" Jose explained in a loud tone.

"And what happened?" Bernard asked.

"We... Lost..." Jose said in an unhappy tone.

"...Wasn't worth it in the end, huh?" Bernard asked once more.

"All I wanted... Was to prove my guild was the best... Because I wanted it." Jose exclaimed.

_"Desire..."_ Bernard thought with the same conflicted emotions as he had before.

Following Joses words, Bernard made a face of realization, as if coming to conclusions that he struggled to reach on his own. Putting his hand over his face, Bernard started to rub his eyes before taking off his beanie and scratching his head as he reflected on what he was told by the ghost of the former Wizard Saint.

"You know... Finally managing to talk about it... I didn't do a good job towards the end..." Jose said as Bernard noted the relatively somber tone he was displaying.

"Guess not..." Bernard said.

"After I lost all my magical power in my fight with Makarov, all I wanted was vengeance for my failure. My guild disbanded, I lost my status and notoriety and then my life. Most of my loyal followers I wound up absorbing their magic in a fit of rage and converted them into Shades until I got enough power to leave my skeleton." Jose said as he looked down at the ground.

"...You sound remorseful." Bernard stated.

"...Heh... Guess I do..." Jose said in self-reflection. "After I heard that Makarov went missing with all the other wizards in his guild, I died and was still trapped here all this time." The ghost said.

"...Waste of an afterlife if you asked me. You spend all this time just hating and keeping yourself alive off that... Just doesn't seem worth it." Bernard said, giving his opinion.

"But it was all I had left..." Jose said in response. "It was all I cared about. It's not right to pretend something I care about is not what I want." He continued.

"Yeah but within reason... You have to accept things for what they are, the members of your guild moved on. Why couldn't you?" Bernard asked with a sincere tone. _"Acceptance..."_ He thought as he looked at the ghost.

"I just didn't want to die a failure..." Jose stated as Bernard looked at the phantom and noted his body was beginning to fade slightly. "I just wanted to prove myself, is that so bad?" Jose asked.

"...No..." Bernard asked. _"...He's not wrong... He had stuff he wanted to prove... There's nothing wrong with that... His ghost form is..."_ He thought.

"But now that time has passed... I just want- Wha-what? What's going on?" Jose said as he looked at his tiny phantom hands as they started to disappear.

"...I think you're actually passing on." Bernard said as he stood up.

"No! I'm not ready to go yet! All I had to do was-" Jose said as he continued to fade in and out.

"Jose!" Bernard shouted as Jose looked up at him. "It's okay..." He said.

"...I... I... I don't want to go..." Jose said with a tone of sadness. "I don't have anything left..."

"It's alright... I'll stay right here... It's more than nothing..." Bernard said as he looked at the ghost as Jose slowly begun to disperse into particles, tears starting to form on his ghostly face.

"It's been so long since I felt this sad..." Jose said as the drops rolled down his ghostly form.

"I've been there... Loads of times... And it's mostly from realizations." Bernard said, actually becoming sympathetic to the emotional state of the ghost.

"Heh... You would have made a great Phantom Lord wizard if you had joined ten years ago." Jose said as he disappeared, passing away.

"Well, I was about ten years old back then but... Thanks anyway." Bernard said with a shrug. _"Hard to believe that conversation ended positively..."_ He said as he sat back down on the ground, scratching his neck as he looked at the now empty barrier box.

As he looked at it, the barrier suddenly disappeared as he looked up towards the stairs as Camilla, followed by the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental behind her.

"Hey! I swear I wasn't looking at your boobs up there!" Corvus said as he flew behind her with a large bump on his head with Vulp and Baurs trailing behind.

"And yet somehow I don't believe you." Camilla said as she rolled her eyes as she walked down the stairs before looking at Bernard sitting on the floor. "Hey Bernard... You okay?" She asked.

"Whoa whoa, where's the ghost?!" Corvus said loudly as he looked over at the area where Bernard was, noticing the lack of Jose Porlas presence.

"Oh yeah, I took care of it." Bernard said as he turned towards the group while sitting.

"What did you do?" Baurs asked as Vulp raised any eyebrow.

"Talked with him and then he disappeared." Bernard said. "To the "great beyond."' He said jokingly as he waved both his hands in the air overdramatically.

"Oh ha ha." Corvus said sarcastically.

_"Was that a joke?" _Camilla thought with a raised eyebrow

"We looked around upstairs some more but didn't find any more skulls like you asked." Baurs said.

"Okay then, well the main threat is over and done with anyway so all's well that ends well." Bernard said casually before looking over at Vulp. "Hey, come here." He said as he motioned for the fox to come over to him.

As Vulp walked over, confused as to why Bernard requested him to approach, the young beanie sporting man proceeded to wrap his arms around the foxs body and lifted him slightly onto his lap while he was still sitting on the ground, surprising the fox as he laid across him.

"Huh?" Camilla muttered with confusion at Bernard as her boyfriend begun to pet the fox Celestial Spirits backside, Vulp enjoying the feeling of companionship from his magical benefactor.

"Hey Corvus, we had something we wanted to talk about right?" Bernard said as he looked up towards the airborne crow.

"Oh yeah! We have some business we need to discuss!" Corvus said in a loud and aggravated tone. _"I'm going to teach this uncaring bastard some manners!"_ He thought with a frustrated mentality as he flew down to the ground and met the seated Bernard at eye level.

"Before that, can I ask you and Vulp something?" Bernard asked as Corvus and Vulp looked at him with confusion. _"Deep breath Bernard, deep breath..."_ He thought as inhaled and exhaled a sigh.

"What?" Corvus said with a skeptical tone.

"Do you guys want to join Psycho Circus?" Bernard asked with a serious face as Camilla looked on with surprise.

"...Wha-what?" Corvus said in shock as Vulp looked at Bernard with wide eyes, twisting his head back to look at him on his lap.

"You're... Asking for them to join the guild?" Camilla said, bewildered by Bernards action.

"Wait, hold up!" Corvus said as he put his wings up. "This isn't a bad joke right?" The crow asked.

"No." Bernard said bluntly.

"You are legitimately asking if we want to join the guild?" Corvus continued questioning.

"Yes." Bernard replied bluntly.

"Hold on, is this some kind of "pass off?" Like you're giving us to the guild or something?" Corvus said, now with skepticism as Bernard looked at the crow with annoyance.

"Shut up! Do you want to join the guild with me or not, you dumb chicken?!" Bernard exclaimed angrily.

"...Huh?" Camilla mumbled once more, realizing what he said as her eyes widened.

"I'm not a chicken! I'm a-... Wait..." Corvus screamed until he processed what Bernard said, causing him to calm down slightly.

"Alright... I did some thinking, hear me out..." Bernard said as the others looked at him. "It be too hard for me to come up with new acts for creatures I haven't found when you two have been doing such a good job listening to me already." He explained with a slightly bashful face of redness as he looked upright towards Camilla. "And I frankly have nothing really planned if I did ship you off to a Celestial Spirit Wizard and left Hemlock so I gotta ask this with all sincerity..." Bernard continued before shifting his eyes back towards the Celestial Spirits.

"You... You're serious?" Corvus said with a surprised face as Vulp got off Bernards lap and looked at the young man.

"Do... You guys want to be guildmates?" Bernard asked with a slightly embarrassed expression. _"Blegh! I sound so sappy!... But at least I finally said it... And I know it's what they want to hear."_ He thought as he looked at Corvus and Vulp, waiting for a reaction as Camilla and Baurs looked on.

"Weeellll… I don't know, I have a busy schedule already just flapping my wings for exercise, staring at hot girls, being awesome." Corvus said as he turned away from Bernard, waddling off a bit.

"Huh?" Bernard muttered.

"Don't really know if you want me in your guild." Corvus said with a smirk as he turned his head back slightly from Bernard as Vulp looked at the crow with an unimpressed look before shifting back towards Bernard, the fox beginning to lick Bernards left cheek as a sign of affection and confirmation at his choice. "Damn it Vulp, I wanted to keep it going!" The crow complained.

"That a "yes" or you gonna drag this out as badly I did?" Bernard said as Vulp lifted up his paws and begun to hug Bernard.

"Aww damn it, let me in!" Corvus said as he waddled back over and begun a group hug with Bernard and Vulp, wrapping his wings around the other two. _"We finally got a home..."_ The crow thought happily.

"Am I offered the job too?" Baurs asked casually.

"Of course you are." Bernard asked when suddenly he noticed Camilla slump down to her knees and her head facing down. "Hey, you okay?" He asked out of concern as the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental looked at her as she lifted her head to see a face full of happiness and relief.

"You... You finally said it..." Camilla said with an elated yet exhausted tone. "You finally joined the guild with us... You're finally a Psycho Circus wizard!" She exclaimed as she ran over from the ground and knocked Corvus and Vulp away from Bernard and proceeded to violently embrace Bernard, tightly squeezing him in a hug.

"Blagh! Gah!" Bernard painfully muttered. _"Glad she finally got what she wanted too but can she not crush my windpipe to show it!"_ He thought in intense pain as his incredibly strong and beautiful friend continued to tighten her hold on him, rubbing her face against his in a loving manner.

"Yo, "Sweet Cheeks!" Calm down!" Corvus said as he and Vulp tried to separate the happy Camilla from Bernard as he was starting to pass out from her strength.

"Happiness is a strong emotion, is it not?" Baurs said casually as she looked on.

"Not the point! Shut up!" Corvus screamed.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Oak Town, 6:59 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

With the ghost of Jose Porla gone and the haunting presence lifted over the struggling town, Bernard and Camilla went to the mayor, Mr. Zant, to tell him the good news. Ecstatic over finally hearing the town has been rid of its long standing problem with the paranormal, Mr. Zant begun to start drawing up plans to remodel the town after demolishing the dilapidated castle that used to be the Phantom Lord guild.

Receiving the payment of 360,000 Jewels, Bernard and Camilla happily returned to the boarding house they stayed in the night prior, intending to sleep one more night there before returning home to their guildhall to welcome their newest members: Bernard and his beastly allies.

"And there we go." Bernard said as he sat on his bed, holding half of the money he received as he gave it to Camilla.

"You sure about this? I promised I'd give you the whole lot remember?" Camilla, sitting next to him on the same bed, asked with a curious face as she took the bills from her boyfriends hand.

"You did technically help towards the end there. Hell, I have to thank you for locking up Jose like that, I wouldn't have had that conversation with him if I did." Bernard said as he looked at his girlfriend.

"What did you two talk about anyway?" Camilla asked.

"Well... If you really wanna know, I asked him about guilds and how they work." Bernard said as Camilla raised an eyebrow. "Baurs said some stuff to me while you were in town. Stuff about "making new memories" and the sort... Then I talked with Jose and he said some stuff that made me question my mentality on some things." He explained as he counted his share once more. _"I'm still not sure about it but... I'm doing the work already and I have been making others happy through it. Maybe I should consider it a bit."_ Bernard thought.

"For the better or for worst?" Camilla asked out of curiosity.

"Who knows, because I sure as hell don't." Bernard said as he twisted his body past Camilla and laid back on the bed, resting his head on the pillow.

_"He's finally going to be a member of the guild, he's taking responsibility for the crow and the fox and he seems genuinely happy... Screw it! I'm taking this opportunity while I can!" _Camilla thought happily as she turned her body around.

Adjusting herself, Camilla caught Bernard by surprise as she placed her legs around his waistline and mounted him. Blushing, Bernard attempted to get out of her grasp by trying to get up but his girlfriend stopped him in the nick of time with her hands placed on his shoulders and forced him back down to the bed.

"Awww don't fight, consider this another part of the reward. Hehehe." Camilla said with a seductive gaze as she moved one of her hands off his shoulder and begun to rub his chest with it.

"Eh?! Uhh…" Bernard yelped in response to Camillas action as she moved her face closer to him, lips puckered for a kiss.

As she bended downward with her eyes closed, she suddenly felt something touch her lips that didn't feel like her boyfriends own lips. Opening her eyes, she looked and noticed Bernard had placed his index finger on her lips to keep her from kissing him and then noticed his displeased expression.

"Before any kind of celebratory "spit-swapping," mind giving me an explanation?" Bernard said with a twitch in his eye as he pushed Camilla back a bit and proceeded to lift something up for her to see. "The hell is this?" He asked with annoyance.

Prompting Camilla to start sweating with nervousness, she looked at Bernards hand that was holding the Obedience Collar that she purchased in town.

"Uh well!? I saw that... On the ground in the Phantom Lord guildhall and-" Camilla tried to lie and explain until Bernard sat up and was holding a piece of paper.

"This is a receipt for a thing called an "Obedience Collar." And I saw you nearly put this on me when I was unconscious." Bernard said with a judgmental expression as Camilla continued to nervously sweat.

"Uhm!" Camilla muttered, unsure of what to say. "I- I- I'll see you tomorrow! Good night!" She exclaimed as she jumped off of Bernard and ran out the boarding room, slamming the door.

"Hey! Where the hell do you think you're going?!" Bernard said as he jumped up from the bed and quickly chased after his girlfriend, searching for an answer for her nearly placing a collar to control him on his neck. "You're going to explain to me why you bought that damn collar or we're going to have a serious talk about living arrangements when we get home!" He shouted as he chased her into the hallways of the boarding house.

* * *

**Wow Bernard, you finally managed to do what we thought you were never gonna do. Three cheers for him everybody! After talking to Jose Porla and got the ghost to pass on of his own free will following their battle, Bernard made a choice of his own free will and decided to join the Psycho Circus guild, no longer as a prisoner forced to do labor but as a legitimate member. But not alone as he is also assisted by his newly acquired pets: Corvus and Vulp, now with him taking them with him as a part of his team. Only now though, he has to scream at his girlfriend Camilla for buying a controlling collar to place on him. Who can tell what happens now that Bernard is a part of the guild as a real member? Will he become the guild master now after talking with Jose? Time will tell... Next time!**


	51. Chapter 51

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guild, 7:40 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Several days had passed since Bernard and his beastly team had successfully exorcised the ghost of Jose Porla from the old guildhall of Phantom Lord and he had got some money in his wallet but not only did he make some cash, he had brought in Corvus and Vulp as members of Psycho Circus and then accepting them as their master. With his guildmates accepting him once again, Bernard officially had become a wizard at the guild he grew up in.

_"Whoever put all of these here, I am going to wring their neck..." _Bernard mentally complained as he was underneath one of the guilds many tables. Dressed in a dark blue and white horizontal striped t-shirt with a light blue short sleeved button up over it, light blue jeans and black and white shoes with his signature beanie.

With a small hand scraper, Bernard was cleaning off multiple pieces of pink chewing gum that was stuck to the underside of the table. One by one, the beanie sporting young man was angrily picking each piece off and then put them to the side on the floor. As he picked off each piece; Anatoli, dressed in a new outfit of white pants that were tight around the ankles with yellow star designs on the sides, a red bandanna tied around his neck, black gloves with long white and yellow sleeves up his arms with no shirt or shoes, rolled over on his ball as he went over the gum, getting stuck in the process.

"What the- Hey!" Anatoli said angrily as he got off his ball and looked at the gum sticking his ball to the floor before bending over to look at Bernard underneath the table. "Bernie, the hell you doing sticking gum to my ball?!" He complained.

"You rolled over the gum while I was cleaning this table!" Bernard said as he looked up towards Anatoli as the ball rolling shirtless man looked under.

"Oh hey, I remember now. That piece was mine." Anatoli said casually as he pointed at one piece still stuck to bottom as Bernard looked at him with annoyance.

"...Thank you for narrowing down my potential list of people to choke." Bernard said with a sardonic tone as he pulled himself out of the table as Vulp, now wearing a collar around his neck that had the Psycho Circus logo dangling off it, approached the pair of wizards, his tail covered in pieces of chewed gum. "Jeez Vulp... Overkill much?" He said as he bent down and looked at his fox friends tail, trying to pick them out.

"Dang, if I'd known owning pets would be this helpful with chores, I would have got one sooner." Anatoli said as he bent down next to Bernard and started to help him rid the gum from Vulps fur.

"Why you helping?" Bernard said as he looked over at Anatoli, confused by the help.

"Just being nice..." Anatoli said with a shrug as Bernard looked at him with a moderately impressed face.

_"Wasn't really expecting that from him... Oh right... He's my friend, I'm still trying to get used to this."_ Bernard thought as he and Anatoli helped out Vulp.

As they cleaned up Vulp, Camilla, dressed in a tight white t-shirt, black shorts, black open toed shoes, a grey hoodie tied around her waistline and pair of thin bracelets around her wrists, was behind the bar watching with a smile on her face as she looked at the boys. Wiping down the bar with a cloth was Marlene, dressed in a new attire of a black V-neck shirt, a blue denim vest, a long black skirt that went down to her ankles, blue open toed shoes and a black cap on her head.

"Move your arms." Marlene said as Camilla moved her arms off the bar to allow her friend to clean it.

"Oh sorry, I'm just... Enjoying the sight." Camilla apologized before turning her attention back towards Bernard and Anatoli as she enjoyed the sight of her boyfriend acting more politely and open.

"Can't say I blame you, look at him." Marlene said with a similar smile as she turned to look at Bernard, just like Camilla.

"He actually seems like he likes being here... It finally happened..." Camilla said with a blush on her face. _"Note to self; find time to pin him to a wall and make out with him... Again..."_ She thought.

"Maybe now we can finally go on a proper job together." Marlene said, catching Camillas attention.

"Definitely, something we can actually make some decent money doing and have a real adventure." Camilla said as she took a glass and started to clean it. "One without evil painters and kidnapped babies." She said while shaking her head.

"By the way, you ever go to that shopping district in Onibus I told you about?" Marlene asked.

"Oh yeah, great place. Found this little number there." Camilla said as she stood back a little and showed off her clothes as Bernard walked up to the bar.

"And spent some of the money I got from the Phantom Lord job on it because I am "the man" in the relationship and me spending the money makes her happy apparently." Bernard said with a begrudging tone.

"Hey! I said I would start giving you the money from those jobs you worked on before you joined as a real member! Don't complain because you are not as broke as you think!" Camilla said as she pointed at Bernard as Anatoli and Vulp approached.

"Yo, you guys see the amount of gum under the tables? Crazy right?" Anatoli said as he was chewing gum, causing Bernard to look at him with annoyance.

"...Wait, was that from the... Gross!" Bernard said disturbed.

"No! Fresh pack!" Anatoli said as he reached into his pocket and showed everyone a pack of gum as the girls started to chuckle. As the girls laughed, Corvus, now sporting a collar similar to Vulps, and Baurs, who now had a dark green guild logo on her right knee cap, approached after leaving a back room.

"Hey kid!" Corvus exclaimed as Bernard looked at him. "Remind me again why we need to clean up the archive room that no one uses? The damn room has so many dust balls rolling around, I couldn't stop sneezing!" The crow complained as he landed on Baurs head as he wiped his beak.

"Wasn't a problem for me." Baurs said casually.

"Yeah! Well, you don't have a nose so shut up!" Corvus screamed as the others begun to chuckle from his outburst.

"To answer your question, I am still trying to learn containing spells so that room being clean would be nice as well." Bernard said towards Corvus.

"Any luck with that?" Marlene asked. Following her question, Pietro entered the room in the same old outfit he normally wears.

"Judging by the amount of books you left on the floor in there Lil Bern, I would say no luck?" Pietro said as he wiped some dust off his shoulder.

"Don't remind me about the lack of progress..." Bernard said as he scratched his head in frustration. "It's not easy, most of the magical power I have been using for months now have just been me just wildly letting out my energy." He explained.

"Gotta getcha some skills in high tier stuff. Learn something like what I can do and get soaring buddy!" Anatoli said with a smirk as he sat cross legged on his ball.

"No, I am not going to let you two do "air races" for more of those childish competitions you two like to do against eachother." Camilla said in a stern tone as Anatoli rolled his eyes.

"Speaking of which, I believe you owe me a meal after the last contest we did." Bernard said as he pointed at Anatoli.

"Wait, you mean the one with the hot peppers in our mouths? I thought there was no bets during that one!?" Anatoli exclaimed in surprise.

"Nope, I very vividly remember you and me making a deal that the loser had to owe the winner a meal somewhere in town so ante up, acrobat boy!" Bernard said with a smirk. _"Okay, there was no bet but I'm hoping me tricking him works in my favor." _He thought, hoping for a positive answer.

"You take a crap the size of a log? I sure felt like that the last time I had one of those peppers." Corvus said as he put one of his wings over his chest.

"And last time Vulp won." Bernard said as he looked at Vulp who made a face of triumph. _"By cheating and not even eating the damn thing." _He thought.

"Damn it!... Fine, let's get breakfast or something, I'm actually hungry right now." Anatoli said as he clutched his stomach.

"Actually I could eat too." Marlene said as she spoke up.

"Me too. How about you?" Camilla replied as she looked at Pietro.

"I'm actually quite good, you four can go on without me. I'll finish up here." Pietro said as he sat at one of the stools at the bar as Camilla walked out from behind it.

"I'm getting so many eggs, the place will need to get brand new chickens to keep them on the menu!" Anatoli exclaimed as he rolled towards the exit on his ball with Marlene and Camilla following him.

"You guys come on back." Bernard said towards his pets as Corvus and Vulp turned into light particles and Baurs returned to her bracelet form on Bernards right wrist. "See you later Pietro." He said as he waved off the large bald man as he waved back.

Turning around towards the bar, he looked over as he noticed a certain small bowling-pin shaped man drinking a large bottle of alcohol as he sat on the floor. Giving a look of confusion, Pietro just stared as he watched Master Barnum drink.

"Master, what're you doing?" Pietro asked as he looked over.

"Oh, hello there Pietro. I didn't think you were gonna see me with your protruding gut! Hahaha!" Master Barnum chuckled as he jumped up from the ground and landed on the bar, sitting cross-legged on the table as he looked at his fellow guildmember.

"Surprised to see you bright and early. And knocking back the booze it seems." Pietro said as he rubbed his chin as he looked at the bottle of alcohol.

"Couldn't help myself while the children are out." Master Barnum said with a smirk as he grabbed a pair of glasses behind the counter and poured the liquor into the glasses, offering one to Pietro who took it.

"Little early but thanks." Pietro said as he took a sip. "Do you mind if I asked you a question?" He asked.

"Yes, this is my real hair." Master Barnum said jokingly as he took off his top hat and showed his partially balding hairstyle as Pietro looked at the guild master with annoyance.

"No, I wanted to ask you something important. How long are you gonna keep acting like a jester around Lil Bern?" Pietro said with a serious tone as Master Barnum took a swig from the glass.

"This is Psycho Circus, we're all clowns here." Master Barnum said as he locked eyes with the strongman.

"That may be true but now that he's joined the guild, shouldn't you be talking with him more? He's supposed to be your successor, after all." Pietro said.

"...You may be right. Glad to know you have brains with the brawn. Hehehe." Master Barnum said, continuing to give bad jokes as Pietro shook his head with a frustrated expression forming.

"Please, Master... I think it's important that-" Pietro said until Master Barnum lifted up his cane and pointed it at Pietro.

"I think it's important that he takes his time." Master Barnum said, speaking with a surprisingly serious tone while still maintaining his smile and catching Pietro by surprise. "As long as he thinks of me as some "lazy old man who cracks dumb jokes," I don't think he necessarily needs me to give him any pushes." The guild master said as he grabbed the alcohol bottle and poured some more into his glass.

"I'm asking because you asked me to train him. You're his father so I assumed-" Pietro said before Master Barnum cut him off again.

"If I coddle him, he's just going to return to the way he was as a teenager." Master Barnum said as he looked at Pietro. "Right now, he is trying his best to act friendly to the rest of the guild. He even accepted those creatures as his own. He's always had the leadership skills but now he is finally using them and being aware of it." He explained.

"I won't deny that. It's much better to see him happy than to see him acting moody like he was." Pietro said as he continued to sip from his glass.

"I wonder... Maybe with time, we'll see him cracking jokes like his old man. Hehehe." Master Barnum joked as Pietro rolled his eyes.

_"Hopefully not, I'm barely stomaching hearing some of these..."_ Pietro thought with frustration. "But that doesn't change the fact you really should talk with him." He said.

"I'll save the long awaited "father/son" chat you're referring to for when he wants to have it. For now, I'll just enjoy the continuous show of him working on ideas for the guild and shouting at all of you in my stead." Master Barnum said with a smirk.

"...That in mind, have you been spying on his little idea book for his plans? Figured I'd ask in case so I can warn the other guildmembers for a sudden rush of routine practice." Pietro asked.

"Ahh yes, I love using my magic to see what happens under this big top. Feels like I can be a voyeur without being a pervert. Hehehe." Master Barnum said jokingly.

"...Never use that joke again, please." Pietro said, weirded out by the comments of his guild master. "As you were saying?" He continued.

"Well... I don't think a "sudden rush of routine practice" is going to be too much of a problem in the future if my son has his way." Master Barnum said with a smirk.

"Hmmm?" Pietro muttered in interest.

Meanwhile, sitting at an outdoor table next to a small restaurant was Bernard, Camilla and Marlene in chairs. Coming out of the doorway to the restaurant was Anatoli on his ball, carrying multiple plates of pancakes, scrambled eggs, waffles, bacon and sausages.

"There! Happy?! I got the stupid food! And the dumb people inside nearly didn't give it to me because of that whole "no shirt, no shoes, no service" schtick!" Anatoli exclaimed in annoyance as he sat on his ball and putting down the food on the table.

'"Yes."' Bernard, Camilla and Marlene said collectively with smiles.

"Good! Now give me a pancake!" Anatoli angrily exclaimed as he reached over and grabbed a pancake, eating it from his hands.

"Can't you just use a fork and knife like a normal person?" Camilla said as the group looked at Anatoli.

"Hey, I'm the hungry one here!" Anatoli said in his defense.

"Pass me the eggs please?" Marlene said towards Bernard as he grabbed a plate of eggs and handed to her. "Thank you." She said with a smile as she started to eat.

_"Okay... So far so good, keep it up Bernard... Keep being friendly." _Bernard thought mentally, hoping to maintain the polite personality he was trying to display as Camilla noticed the face he was making.

"The heck's wrong with your face?" Camilla said as she noticed Bernards struggling expression.

"Huh? Oh uh... Nothing?" Bernard said awkwardly.

"No, I know that look, something's on your mind." Camilla said as she put her fork and knife down.

"What's up?" Marlene said with concern as Anatoli looked at Bernard.

"...Okay, fine. I'm trying to... Not be an ass." Bernard said as he looked at the group as they looked at eachother.

"And how are you "not trying to be an ass?"' Camilla said with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm a member of the guild now... And after everything that's happened over the past few months with me and everything, I'm... Trying to be more respectful, you know- Blargh!?" Bernard said as he scratched his neck before feeling something hitting him near his jaw.

Suddenly, as he was talking, Anatoli grabbed a waffle and shoved it into Bernards mouth, shutting him up as he looked at the chimp-like man with surprise over his actions.

"There we go, that outta shut your melancholy trap." Anatoli said with a smirk as Bernard swallowed the whole waffle in his mouth, coughing after it went down his throat.

"Guh!? What the hell... Was that for?!" Bernard said in-between coughing.

"Obviously to keep you from saying something that doesn't need to be said." Camilla said as she picked up a piece of sausage with a fork before eating it.

"What?" Bernard said with confusion.

"You don't need to "act" any specific way around us." Marlene said, catching Bernards attention.

"There's nothing wrong with being yourself around us, we dealt with your bossiness and tendency to shout for years. We're all a little quirky so there's no need to "fake" being polite." Anatoli explained.

"And his version of "quirky" is being an actual pain in the ass." Camilla said with a smirk as she pointed at Anatoli, Marlene chuckling in response.

"And your "quirkiness" is wearing nothing but shorts all the damn time, Lil Ms. "Smooth Legs!"' Anatoli exclaimed as he pointed at Camillas lower body.

"Hey! I wear what I wear because it looks cute!" Camilla said in her defense.

"Least he made fun of you instead of me this time." Marlene said with a shrug.

"And you too, "Snake Bite!"' Anatoli said as he looked at Marlene, causing her to drop her head in sadness at the acknowledgement of her physical appearance as Bernard looked at Anatoli.

"Wow Anatoli, sounds like you want me to force you to have to do an overly strenuous acrobat routine for the show over those comments..." Bernard said with squinted eyes towards his comrade as Anatoli looked at Bernard with surprise.

"What!? Okay! Sorry! Last thing I want to do is anything like that!" Anatoli said with his hands up, not wanting to get in trouble as Marlene and Camilla looked at Bernard.

"Thanks Bernard." Marlene said as she looked at the beanie sporting wizard with a gracious expression.

"It's nothing... Just an old habit." Bernard said casually.

"Good habit to have." Camilla said as she looked at her boyfriend, moderately impressed as Bernard looked at Anatoli.

"Hey uhhh… Sorry for getting angry at you." Bernard said as he looked at Anatoli with a modicum of embarrassment.

"Nah, it's cool. I like to rib people and sometimes I can get out of hand..." Anatoli said with a similar feeling of remorse for his words. After he finished speaking, Bernard lifted his hand and put it on Anatolis shoulder in a comforting manner, the girls watching with smiles as the two friends got along.

"See, you're doing a good job "acting natural."' Camilla said towards Bernard as he locked eyes with her, a blush forming on his face.

"Oh ha ha..." Bernard said sarcastically towards his girlfriend as he took a pancake and ate it.

"I'm just glad we can have moments like this finally..." Marlene said as the others looked at her. "Everything that happened in Magnolia and all the crazy stuff happening since, never thought we were ever gonna get to a point like this." She continued.

"No lie, kinda felt the same way." Anatoli said as he grabbed a waffle and took a bite of it.

"...Look ummmm… Sorry for taking so long with joining back up with the guild and-" Bernard said until he noticed Camilla put her hand up to get him to stop.

"You don't have to keep saying sorry." Camilla said as she moved her raised hand over the table and placed it on top of Bernards. "We're just happy to see you trying your best." She said with an appreciative smile as she stared at Bernard, prompting him to blush as he stared back.

Noticing the lack of movement as they continued to stare at eachother, Anatoli inched over to Marlene.

"Couple Jewels say they stare at eachother for a full minute." Anatoli whispered to Marlene.

"I might just take you up on that..." Marlene remarked as she continued to look at the pair stare before they snapped out of it with Camilla speaking up.

"Actually wait... There actually is something you can do." Camilla said as Bernard raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Bernard replied.

"You can tell us about what you were doing in Hargeon." Camilla asked as Bernards eyes widened.

"Oh hey! Yeah that's something I actually want to know about." Anatoli said, speaking up.

"Same." Marlene said as everyone looked at Bernard, a face of confusion forming on his face as he didn't know how to respond.

"I-I don't think it's worth talking about…" Bernard said nervously. _"I don't really have much of a story for this kind of question..." _He thought as he scratched the back of his head.

"Well I read a bit of your diary that one day when you came back and all I got was that you worked a bunch at a thrift shop." Camilla said as Marlene and Anatoli looked at her with surprise.

"Bernie? Selling clothes?! That's hilarious! Hahahaha!" Anatoli said as he smacked his knee, finding amusement in the revelation of Bernard working retail.

"I had to make money somehow!" Bernard said speaking up in defense of himself.

"And the apartment you lived in was a borderline closet." Camilla said with folded arms and a smirk on her face.

"...That sounds depressing..." Marlene said as she looked at Bernard with a pitiful expression.

"Don't look at me like that!" Bernard exclaimed towards Marlene. "Stuff wasn't easy... Hell, I had just got there moments before the war between Ishgar and Alvarez took place." He said as he played with some of the scrambled eggs on his plate.

"...Oh yeah..." Anatoli said as he realized what Bernard said.

"It's been almost over a year since that battle happened." Marlene said as she looked at the others.

"We got lucky in Hemlock, the town wasn't a hot spot for enemy territory so no one caused any damage... But Hargeon…" Camilla said as she looked at Bernard as he sighed.

"Before you start worrying, I was fine. I made it out of the town during the evacuation." Bernard said as the others seemed to calm down as he said that. "Once the battles ended and the town reconstruction was finished, everything started to get back to normal." He said.

"And by normal, you mean hiding out in Hargeon?" Camilla said as Bernards eye twitched as she said it.

"...I thought we were past that?" Bernard said annoyed as Camilla made a smirk at his reaction.

"We are but I still like getting a rise out of you. Hehe." Camilla remarked with a chuckle as Anatoli and Marlene started to laugh and Bernard rolled his eyes.

"Love you too." Bernard said as Camillas eyes widened and her face got red as Marlene and Anatoli started to snicker at her reaction. _"That outta teach you a lesson..."_ He thought with an evil smirk as Camilla looked down with embarrassment.

"Enough with the flirting! Back to the story!" Anatoli said loudly as he nudged Bernard with his elbow as Bernard continued his story.

"I was working for a thrift shop in Hargeon, relatively simple stuff with folding clothes and socks and people would come in and buy them. Didn't see much happen other than annoyed customers who didn't like seeing a cockroach every now and again in a used clothing store. That was most of my time." Bernard explained. "Well..." He said as he realized something.

"There it is." Anatoli said as he looked at his beanie sporting friend. "There's the juicy stuff." He continued as the girls leaned in out of interest.

"Now that I think of it... The store was frequented by bandits a bunch." Bernard said casually as the others looked at him with confusion.

"What?" Marlene questioned.

"The Orca Winged Sky Pirates was one, you know those thieves who go around with hang gliders and pickpocket people in the streets? They tried to come in the store but they forgot to leave the fake wings at home and couldn't get through the front door with them attached to their backs so they snapped trying to get inside the store." Bernard said with a smirk as the others started to laugh.

"Pffff! What?!" Anatoli said as he bent back over his ball with a hard laugh.

"Oh my god! Hahaha!" Marlene laughed.

"So much for being "professional sky pirates." Hehe." Camilla said as she put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.

"Then one day we had a bunch of bandits on horseback enter the store but the strangest thing was the horses they rode in on were just guys in horse costumes." Bernard continued with the same smirk on his face as the others continued to laugh.

"Bahaha!" Anatoli exclaimed as he fell off his ball onto the hard ground.

"Hey! Come on dude, it wasn't that funny!" Bernard said as he stood up from his chair and picked his friend back up to his feet.

"That- Pfff! That it?! Hehe." Marlene asked as she struggled to form words through her laughing.

"Not really, that was it. Day I was fired, some guy tried to buy all our black socks for cheaper than what they already were and I snapped at him. That's when I met Corvus later that day, then Vulp and then... You know the story." Bernard said as he and Anatoli sat back down, everyone beginning to settle down as they did.

"Wasn't that hard now, wasn't it?" Camilla said with a smile towards Bernard, who smiled back with a genuinely happy expression.

_"...Maybe I am getting better at this and I'm not even knowing it... Actually... Maybe I should talk about that now while I'm at it..."_ Bernard thought as he looked around at his friends happy faces. "Hey, mind if I talk with you guys about something?" He asked as the others looked at him.

"Shoot." Anatoli said as he grabbed a bunch of bacon pieces and ate them.

With Marlene and Camilla nodding in response, Bernard reached behind himself and took out his little black book of ideas for the Psycho Circus guild show and placed it on the table as Camilla grabbed it.

"Page 206." Bernard said as Camilla opened it up to those pages. "I had an interesting idea a couple of days after we got back from Oak Town." He said as Camilla looked at the book, reading through the words with curiosity.

"Wha-what?" Camilla said with surprise as she looked at Bernard.

"Something wrong?" Marlene asked as she looked at Camilla before the S-class wizard passed the book over to her lizard-like friend, giving her a chance to read Bernards book.

"What's up? Come on! Don't leave me out!" Anatoli exclaimed as Bernard looked at his friends scramble as Camilla continue stare at her boyfriend.

"Whoa... Is this for real?" Marlene said as she handed the book over to Anatoli.

"Let me see that- A show just for animals? "Bernards Menagerie at Psycho Circus?"' Anatoli said after he looked at the part Bernard wanted everyone to read.

"It's the planning stages, at least." Bernard said casually.

"A show just for the creatures?" Marlene said with surprise towards her friend.

"Yeah, Corvus and Vulp and Baurs… Maybe even Formosa if I can figure out something that won't destroy the guildhall. Among others still to be determined..." Bernard said as he scratched his chin.

"Wait, wait!" Anatoli said loudly. "Where do we fit into all of this?!" He asked with bewilderment as he stood up from his ball.

"What do you mean?" Bernard said confused.

"Yeah! What about our show?! If you make this animal show a part of the guild, where's our show gonna be?" Marlene said with an angry expression as she stood up.

"...He already thought ahead on that." Camilla said as the others looked at her.

"Both shows are going to happen at the guild. We do the animal show every three weeks and the main show with the wizards every five. What does that mean for you guys?" Bernard said with a smile as he looked at his friends as they started to understand what he meant.

"Wait, how would that work?" Anatoli said as he and Marlene looked.

"It would work by giving you guys more time to practice..." Camilla said as she looked at Bernards smug look.

"More time to practice?... Wait... That also means..." Marlene said as she started to realize what Bernards plan was.

"More time for wizard jobs, more time for us to spend together doing stuff like this, more time for the other guildmembers to get out there and do things for requests." Bernard explained as Marlene and Anatoli sat down, finally realizing what Bernard had come up with.

"Five week periods are much longer than three weeks." Anatoli said, stating the obvious.

"And it would mean we would get more free time finally..." Marlene said as she looked at Bernard. "This... This is amazing." She said with a smile forming as Anatoli looked at Bernard.

"Anything you two would like to say?" Bernard said with his smug look still on his face.

"Sorry for getting mad, you annoying genius. Hehe." Anatoli said with a chuckle as he locked eyes with his friend.

"If you weren't taken, I would kiss you right now." Marlene said as Bernard started to laugh.

"Sad to say, someone here might be jealous if you did-" Bernard said until he was cut off by the sudden feeling of what felt like a set of hands touching both of his cheeks and a set of lips overlapping with his own.

Looking with surprise, Anatoli and Marlene were caught off guard by the sight of Camilla kissing Bernard, her tongue entering his mouth as he fell backwards from his chair and hitting the back of his head on the ground.

"Gah!" Bernard exclaimed in pain as he clutched at the back of his head. "Did you have to do that now?!" He said as he rubbed the area where he was hurt before wiping his lips.

"Couldn't help myself, you gotta stop suddenly acting cool." Camilla said with a smirk as she bent down with an aroused look in her eyes towards her annoyed boyfriend.

"Enough with the romance you two! We gotta celebrate the extra playtime!" Anatoli exclaimed as he stood up, ready to party over the news.

"I agree." Marlene said happily as she walked over to where Camilla and Bernard were as the S-class wizard helped her boyfriend back up to his feet.

"Hey, don't forget to practice. If you don't, I'll make Baurs step on your back." Bernard said with a stern tone towards Anatoli as Camilla and Marlene clutched at Bernards arms, tightly holding him with happy looks on their faces as the group walked off to another location to continue spending time together. "And do both of you need to cling to me?!" He said in a complaining tone with a blush from the two girls walking closely next to him.

"Oh don't complain. Hehe." Marlene said with a smile.

"You know you like it." Camilla said as she enjoyed looking at Bernards embarrassed expression.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hemlock, 9:54 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

In the dead of night and all the businesses in town closed, the town of Hemlock was quiet and calm with only the sounds of wild animals in the nearby woods and the cool breeze of the wind passing through. In the midst of the silence, however, a small business in town with a sign that read "Solomons Supplements" had a suspicious individual standing in front of the glass door to the building.

A small figure wearing a hooded cloak had put their noticeably paw-like hand on one of the panels of the glass and begun to cut into the glass with their fingernails and broke a circle through the glass. Reaching their hand in to try and break in to the place but to no avail as their small arm couldn't reach the door handle.

"Grrr…" The tiny individual said to themselves in a frail voice that tried to sound tough. Turning around, the small figure had bend down slightly and a long tail had came out of the underpart of the cloak they were wearing and stretched it through the hole to unlock the door, finally entering. "Let's see..." The small figure said as they looked around and begun to take multiple things in the store into a rucksack, a smirk forming on their face as they quickly ran out, heading for the woods outside of town.

* * *

**Well that was weird... The hell was that last part? With Bernard now in the guild and his pets as a unit, Bernard was still struggling to maintain a polite attitude but with some encouraging from friends over breakfast, he managed to talk with them and give them a looksee into his thought process for a way to expand and improve Psycho Circus; a show for just the animals. With more time to give his fellow guildmates the ability to live their lives and do more wizarding jobs, Bernard is finally taking proper steps to help the guild his friends tried so hard to get him to join. But what of this tiny fellow with a tail who arrived in Hemlock? Why did it steal from a supplements store? Only one way to find the answers and it involves waiting for the next chapter! **

**Authors Note: (Wanted to do a more leisurely chapter in preparation for the next story arcs.)**


	52. Chapter 52

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hemlock, 9:35 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Within the town of Hemlock, Bernard was walking down the street carrying a brown bag full of random objects and a piece of paper he had in his mouth as he struggled to carry the bag.

"Corf onm…" Bernard said, struggling to say "come on" due to the piece of paper in his mouth as he walked down the street. Managing to finally get a better grasp of the bag, he removed the paper from his mouth and looked over the paper, revealed to be a list. "Okay, I got those two things for that guy and then that thing for Harriet... Now I need to find- Ahh! There it is." He said to himself as he looked over at a building with a sign that read "Clerico Painting Supplies."

Walking inside, Bernard looked through the shelves of painters supplies, grabbing several packs of colors and books for children to fill in blank pictures and walked over to the desk to purchase them. Placing them in his bag of other purchases, he walked outside back to the streets.

"And that looks to be it... Finally." Bernard said with relief as he looked over the list of things. As he stood looking at the list, light particles from under his shirt begun to come out and form into Corvus and Vulp and the rock bracelet around his wrist expanded and formed into Baurs. "And I now believe we are done boys and girl." He said with a smile as he looked at his team of beastly allies.

"About time!" Corvus said as he flew in the air as Vulp and Baurs stood at Bernards sides.

"And you know what time it is!" Bernard said with a happy expression.

'"Kiernan's Pastries!"' Bernard and Corvus exclaimed as Vulp jumped around with a similar vigor.

"...You know I can't eat pastries right?" Baurs said as the others looked at her.

"Dibs on her snacks!" Corvus said with a smirk as Bernard glared at the crow with jealousy.

"I think there's a fancy store on the way there that has some nice rocks that's meant for outdoor decorum, I'll buy some of those for you to eat." Bernard said as he looked at Baurs.

"That should be fine." Baurs said casually.

"Just how many places are in this town just for buying random stuff?" Corvus said as he flew over towards Bernard.

"There's a store in town for buying scuba equipment but the nearest ocean is Akane Beach a good several miles away. There's a book emporium in town just for books related on how to eat wild animals you really shouldn't eat. I even remember there was once an indoor roller rink where people in town could buy toy guns and hit people with sacks full of sand but they got shut down for people losing eyes." Bernard explained as he listed off businesses in Hemlock.

"That last one sounds awful." Baurs said as she pondered what Bernard said.

"...They can't all be gems." Bernard said with a shrug as he walked away with the creatures following him as he headed in the direction of Kiernan's Pastries.

After several minutes of being inside Bernards favorite place in town, the group of the beanie sporting wizard and his beastly allies left the building and walked over to a nearby bench that was over a bridge with Nereid Lake flowing under it.

"What's today's haul?" Corvus said as he perched on the seat board of the bench with Vulp sitting next to Bernard with him setting down the brown bag of stuff he had been buying earlier.

"Six fudge brownies, four crumb cakes, eight chocolate chip cookies and one extra large cream and sprinkles covered donut." Bernard said with a large smile as he looked at the inside the bag of snacks he bought.

"Now this is the life." Corvus said happily as he looked down at the bag of food before turning his attention to the bag. "Remind me again, why we buying all this junk again?" The crow said before Bernard handed him a brownie.

"Errands for the guildmembers." Bernard said as he handed Vulp a cookie for him to munch on and then reaching into the bag of other goods and took out a handful of decorative shiny rocks and put them into Baurs large mouth. "Any good?" He asked out of curiosity.

"Adequate." Baurs said as she munched on the rocks.

"Anyway, Camilla wanted me to get her some stuff then I ended up asking around the guild if anybody wanted anything in town." Bernard said as he grabbed the donut and took a bite out of it. _"Ooooohhhh lord! This donut is better then punching out cold a bandit!"_ He thought with joy.

"What's in here anyway?" Corvus said with a mouthful of brownie as he looked down towards Bernard as Vulp shoved the cookie in his mouth and then moved from Bernards side to his lap, comfortably laying on him as his master begun to pet his backside.

"Cleaning oil for Harriets beard, nail clippers for Anatolis feet, some bracelets for Gigantia, a book on breeding chickens and selling their eggs to construction companies for Nole and Andy- Okay, that last one disturbs me a little." Bernard said as he listed off some of the things he got for his guildmates.

"They better be reimbursing us for some of this crap, I don't want to think of all the money the hotties been giving us now going to waste on stupid hair cleaner and gaudy jewelry." Corvus said as he swallowed the brownie. "Give me a cookie." The crow asked as Bernard gave him one of the snacks.

"Gigantia and Harriet said they were but somehow I think Nole and Andy are going to stiff me." Bernard said as he rubbed his chin. "And if they do, I can just get Baurs to spray them with mud." He said as he looked at Baurs.

"If that's what you wish." Baurs said casually.

"Starting to get used to the idea of having us around, aren't you?" Corvus said with a cocky look on his face as he looked at Bernard, the beanie sporting wizard blushing in response.

"Well... It's not like I never said you guys weren't appreciated." Bernard said as he scratched the back of his head, Vulp rubbing his head on his masters lap and belly as a sign of affection. "Ahhh… This feels good." He said as he laid back against the bench, looking up towards the sky as Corvus moved over and looked at his magical benefactor.

"Still kinda sucks how we're technically members of this guild and we're still told not to leave the town without someone with us." Corvus said as he bent his head down to look at Bernard.

"Because if we go out of town, everyone's going to flip out and I don't wanna see the mess that happens if that occurs... Mostly because I might have to fix it too." Bernard said with a cheeky look on his face.

"That said, we should be grateful for the experience." Baurs said as Bernard looked over towards her.

"Yeah I guess, now we have to consider ourselves "important."' Bernard said as he reached over into the bag of snacks and took out a brownie for himself and gave one of the crumb cakes to Vulp.

"We already were important to begin with. We've saved enough peoples lives to call ourselves actual heroes." Corvus said with pompous tone as Bernard, Vulp and Baurs looked at the crow with smirks on their faces.

"I wouldn't call us that, we've done some decent things but "heroes" is a bit of a stretch." Bernard said as shook his head at Corvus.

"Well I still feel like we do some good." Corvus said as he looked around, noticing something peculiar as he looked to his side.

"Don't know if helping Anatoli and Marlene with a job where we have find missing sheep that got kidnapped by forest Vulcans for fun counts as- good?" Bernard said until he looked over to where Corvus was looking and begun to notice something strange as Vulp and Baurs looked on.

"What's wrong?" Baurs asked.

Looking on, the group watched as a crowd of people begun to form around the outside of a small building. With eyes full of interest, Bernard grabbed all the bags and proceeded to get up from the bench and walk over to the crowd, curious as for the reason for the sudden congregation.

"The hell's going on here?" Corvus said as he flew over and perched on Bernards shoulder.

"Hold on." Bernard said as he looked at two men in front of him, poking one of them on the shoulder to get their attention. "Hi, what's going on here?" He asked as they turned around to look at him.

"It's nuts, someones store got broken into." The man said.

"Place called "Solomons Supplements."' The other man said.

"Whoa... Really?" Bernard said with surprise.

"What's the big deal? It's a robbery, happens to businesses all the time, doesn't it?" Corvus said as he scratched the back of his head with his wing as Vulp and Baurs looked on.

"Yeah but that makes sense at a banking guild or a place that has something more valuable like a jewelry store... It's a supplements shop. Who would rob this?" Bernard said as he looked on, attempting to listen to the crow.

"Any idea what was taken?" A random person in the crowd said aloud.

"I heard the register was fine but there's tons of stuff like protein bars and powder missing." Another person in the crowd replied.

"Why would anyone want that? I can understand the Lacrima headphone shop robbery. Or that ransack at that fitness store on the other side of town two days ago but this stuff sounds pointless to steal." A third individual in the group said as Bernard eavesdropped.

"They took supplements and protein bars?" Bernard said with confusion as he looked at the creatures.

"I don't understand, what are those worth in value?" Baurs said as Vulp looked on with a raised brow.

"Two words; "absolutely" and "nothing."' Corvus replied.

"That's three words." Baurs replied back.

"No, you say it with out the "and" and- oh forget it..." Corvus said with annoyance until giving up his argument as Bernard made a face of curiosity before turning around and walking away as the creatures followed him. "Hey! Where you going!?" The crow exclaimed as Bernard walked back in the other direction.

"Going to drop off this junk and then finishing these snacks." Bernard said with squinted eyes.

"The robbery doesn't concern us so I can understand why we aren't interjecting ourselves." Baurs said as she and Vulp followed behind Bernard with Corvus flying next to the beanie sporting wizard.

"No." Bernard said flatly. "We're gonna eat these snacks, finish this errand... And then have a look around..." He continued as he walked at a faster pace.

"Wait, really?!" Corvus said with surprise as Bernards team attempted to keep up with him.

One hour later, after finishing up his errand of delivering the goods to his friends back at Psycho Circus and then finishing eating their pile of pastries, Bernard and his pets returned to the location of Solomons Supplements with no crowd in front. Looking around at the outer structure, Bernard noted the glass cut in the front door as he bent downward to check it out.

"Cut looks like it was clean... Could've been with a knife or something..." Bernard said as he examined it.

"Could've been a claw." Corvus said as he and Vulp approached, Bernard grabbing Vulps paw to check the size of his claw.

_"Way bigger... Whatever cut this was small..."_ Bernard thought as he got up from the ground. "Supplements... And bars... Hold on, that one guy said there was more robberies in town, right?" Bernard said as he looked back towards his pets.

"I overheard a Lacrima headphones store and a shop that sells weights." Baurs said as Bernard made a face of intrigue.

"Next stop, Lacrima headphones place." Bernard said with a serious look in his eyes as he walked down the streets.

"The game is afoot!" Corvus said with a vigorous tone as Vulp and Baurs looked on.

"Someone's interested in finding the culprit." Baurs said as Vulp nodded in agreeance as the group headed to the Lacrima headphone shop.

After several minutes of waiting outside the store, the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental waited for their magical benefactor to return as he walked out the door.

"Whatcha find?" Corvus asked as he stood on Baurs backside.

"Based on the store owners own words, someone came in through a small hole they clawed out of the glass in one of the windows in the back and stole a set of Lacrima headphones." Bernard said with a bewildered expression.

"That it?" Corvus said with a raised brow.

"Then about two dozen Lacrima for the headphones that contained seventy different songs each." Bernard said with folded arms as the creatures looked at eachother with a bizarre sense of wonder.

"That's a lot of music." Baurs stated.

"Oh! Question! Question!" Corvus said with enthusiasm as he lifted his wing.

"Yeah?" Bernard replied.

"What genre of music was on most of the Lacrimas?" Corvus asked as Vulp and Baurs looked at the crow with curiosity.

"Why do you seem so interested in solving these robberies?" Baurs asked as the crow made an embarrassed expression.

"I don't know... I just think this is kinda fun." Corvus said as he scratched the back of his head with his wing once again.

"...I got to admit, I'm having fun with this too..." Bernard said with a smirk as he scratched his cheek. "Well, I did ask and the owner said it was mostly stuff with a "thumping beat" to the sound he said." He said.

"That's peculiar..." Baurs said, unsure of what to make of it.

"Hold on, the last thing that was taken... Was weights? Right?" Bernard said in a contemplative tone as Vulp nodded to confirm his thoughts. "Let's go to the other burgled shop... My curiosity is hitting a peak." He said as he begun to walk with the creatures following him.

After reaching the shop, Bernard looked at the front window of the store to notice something missing. In the display out front, there was multiple sets of dumbbells' ranging from a five pound set all the way to a lone fifty pound dumbbell but suspiciously wasn't in a set of two weights like the rest on the display.

"And it looks like we just found a reason not to go inside to investigate." Corvus said as he flew in the air, eye level with Bernard.

"...One dumbbell by itself... Thumping music Lacrima with headphones... And protein powder and supplements." Bernard said, listing off all the missing objects. _"I'm noticing a pattern..."_ He thought with half closed eyes as he rubbed his chin.

"Sounds like someone is looking for a hardcore workout." Corvus said as he looked at the window at the missing dumbbell set.

_"All those stolen objects together would make sense that the person who stole it is a bodybuilder but..."_ Bernard thought as he started to get more and more perplexed by the situation. "Hold on, this is just leading to more and more questions." He said as he took his beanie off and scratched his head.

"Why steal these things?" Baurs questioned as Vulp looked down at the ground and noticed a peculiar crack in the concrete.

"Why is there no money missing?" Corvus said with a raised brow.

"Those included but not just that; the holes in the buildings..." Bernard said as the others looked at him with interest. "All the holes in the glass and windows were tiny, the drug store had the door unlocked from the inside but the hole was too small for a bodybuilder to fit their arm through and twist the lock. And the one at the headphones shop implied that the crook managed to fit through the small windows hole and then back out again." He theorized as the others looked at him.

"Wait, so the crook might be incredibly small?" Corvus said with confusion. "How's that make sense if they're looking for bodybuilding equipment?" The crow continued.

"It also wouldn't explain how they managed to lift a fifty pound dumbbell." Baurs said as Vulp turned his tail into a furry hand and reached over towards Bernard, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Hmmm? Vulp, what's up?" Bernard said with curiosity as he noticed Vulp was looking at something.

Moving to where he was, Bernard, Corvus and Baurs looked at where Vulp was and saw a large crack indentation in the ground. Looking at it, the beanie sporting wizard twisted his gaze in the direction of the dumbbell display at the fifty pound weight and then looked back at the indent.

"And the plot thickens..." Bernard said aloud as his pets looked at him.

"I know that look, what's on your mind." Corvus said as he pointed at Bernard.

"Okay so this crack in the ground looks like it fits the fifty pound weight so this hole must have been made by the crook, dropping it." Bernard explained with a smile on his face, enjoying himself as he solved the case bit by bit. "Now judging by the indent, it had to have fallen by some considerable degree before hitting the ground." He claimed as he pointed at it.

"So if it fell some ways... It could have just been someone incredibly tall and lanky." Corvus guessed.

"Perhaps or perhaps they had some kind of flight ability but now that we have this indent, we might have just what we need to track them down." Bernard said as he turned towards Vulp. "Think you can sniff anything out?" He asked as Vulp nodded in compliance as he bent down towards the hole and attempted to find any noticeable scents.

Moving his nose around the hole, Vulp caught a peculiar scent and felt something on the end of his nose. Reaching into the crack with his paw, the fox Celestial Spirit pulled out a small lone strand of hair and gave it to his beanie sporting master.

"Alright, a real clue!" Corvus said as he flew up towards the now standing Bernard as he looked at the hair.

"Hair... But what's that smell?" Bernard said as examined the strand, noticing the odd scent that it gave off.

"Pardon me Vulp, but can you try and tell us what it smelled like?" Baurs asked as everyone looked down at the fox.

With his paw, Vulp pointed at the side of his head and pulled his paw down the side of his head to signify some kind of action.

"Really wish you could just talk…" Corvus said annoyed as he struggled to understand Vulp.

"Wait... Are you referring to "sweat?"' Bernard said as he looked at Vulp as Vulp nodded with a smile at Bernards ability to comprehend him. _"A piece of hair that reeks of sweat... Hmmmm…"_ He thought as he looked at the hair some more.

"So a tiny person or a tall lanky bodybuilder soaked in sweat who can maybe fly is the culprit... That narrows down our suspects list to "absolutely nobody."' Corvus complained.

"This isn't ordinary hair..." Bernard said as he looked at the hair, prompting his pets to look at him.

"It's not?" Baurs stated. "What is it then?" She continued.

"I think this is a whisker." Bernard stated as the others looked at him confused.

'"A whisker?" Think it couldn't just be Vulps?" Corvus said, perplexed by the origin of the hair as Vulp made an offended expression towards his crow friend.

"No, I've never seen Vulp shed… I think this might be a cats whisker." Bernard said.

"Are you implying a cat stole bodybuilding supplies and headphones?" Baurs said, unsure of what he said.

"It's just a theory, I'm not entirely sure." Bernard replied back. "But it's a clue to track down the culprit so we may as well get use it." He said as he bent down and held the whisker up to Vulps snout.

With the scent now marked, Vulp begun to sniff around. Following behind the fox was Bernard, Corvus and Baurs as the group travelled down the street, intent on finding the thief. After several minutes of tracking with Vulp, the group had reached the trail at the edge of town as they all stopped.

"Vulp?" Bernard said as he looked down towards the fox as he pointed his tail in the direction of the woods on the opposite side of Hemlock. _"Guess we got no choice..."_ He thought with a shrug as the group walked out of town and into the forest.

"Stick together everyone. If we split up, we may be attacked by some forest creature." Baurs stated as Corvus looked at her with annoyance.

"Thanks for stating the obvious like usual." Corvus said.

"Shhh!" Bernard muttered, attempting to make the group be quiet as they continued to follow Vulp through the trees and shrubbery. "If the crook is in these woods, any sound might alert them into running for- Aaahhhh!" He explained until he unwittingly hit his foot on a nearby tree, causing him to feel immense pain and loudly scream.

"So much for being quiet..." Corvus said with half closed eyes as Bernard fell on his butt and clutched at his foot in pain.

Suddenly, a twig snapping noise was heard by the group as they looked around for the location of the sound.

"We're not alone..." Baurs said as Bernard stood up from the ground with Vulp getting closer to Bernard to protect him as Corvus looked around in the air.

_"Come on, where are- Ah ha!"_ Corvus thought until he noticed a small figure quickly rushing out of some nearby bushes and ran deeper into the forest. "There they are!" The crow exclaimed as he looked back at his allies.

"Then chase them down!" Bernard said as he barked an order as Corvus, Vulp and Baurs rushed past Bernard to chase the small figure. _"Stupid foot_ _pain..." _He thought as he kneeled back down to check on his foot.

After a minute of giving his foot a moment to heal, Bernard rushed to catch up to his beastly companions as he ran through the woods and ended up in a clearing with a lone boulder in the middle where the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental were.

"Hey! Find him?" Bernard asked as he walked up to his pets.

"Good news and bad news." Corvus said as he looked up from the ground towards Bernard.

"We lost the suspect." Baurs said.

"Dang it! I was going to say that!" Corvus angrily exclaimed.

"Okay, that's the bad news. The good news?" Bernard asked.

"Look here." Corvus said as he, Vulp and Baurs moved out of the way to show Bernard something.

On the ground in front of the boulder was the missing objects; partially empty bags of protein powder and half eaten bars, a box filled with thin Lacrima crystals and a single fifty pound dumbbell. With curiosity, Bernard looked over the missing objects as he investigated.

"So the powders been somewhat used but we found the weights and music Lacrima... But where's the headphones?" Bernard said aloud to himself.

"Step away from the goods!" A mysterious deep male voice spoke up out of nowhere, prompting the group to look around in surprise until they looked near the peak of the rock in the clearing.

Looking upwards towards the top of the boulder in an attempt to find the source of the voice, the groups attention was caught by a small statue of a cat. With a pair of yellow Lacrima headphones on the ears, the cat had a large head and a small body with a long tail with an orange color scheme with black lines on its body, similar to that of a tiger. As well as the headphones, the statue was suspiciously wearing a small gray tank top on its body.

"'Huh?"' Bernard, Corvus and Baurs said simultaneously in confusion.

"Do not touch those sacred objects for they have been given to me!" The disembodied voice said as the group noticed the voice seemed to be coming from the statue.

"I'm sorry, I must be drunk... Is the cat statue talking?" Corvus said bewildered.

"Says the talking lightning crow… Towards the magical furred fox and the living rock lizard..." Bernard said with half closed eyes.

"...Okay, fair point." Corvus said with an embarrassed expression.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" The statue exclaimed, attempting to catch the groups attention once more. "Leave this place or suffer my powerful wrath!" The statue continued to threateningly shout.

"...This is weird, right? Like, I'm not the only one feeling like this is stranger than expected right?" Corvus asked as Bernard, Vulp and Baurs nodded simultaneously as they all stared at the statue.

"Grrr… Pay attention!" The statue roared as its scream suddenly reverberated into a shockwave of sound, causing the group to go flying backwards and land on the ground, pushed back by the force of the roar.

"The hell was that?!" Corvus screamed as everyone tried to get back up.

_"That was a soundwave... That statue..."_ Bernard thought as he tried to stop the ringing in his ears.

"Leave this place! And do not think of returning!... Unless you have an offer of protein!" The statue exclaimed in a deep voice that cracked somewhat into a more shrill tone as it attempted to force the group into offering it protein.

"Mr. Bernard?" Baurs asked of her magical benefactor.

"...Corvus... Zap it!" Bernard said as he pointed his fingers at Corvus, giving him energy as he sparked up.

"With pleasure!" Corvus said as he begun to generate red and white electricity.

"What?! Uhh?!" The statue muttered in a fearful tone. "Ahhhhh!" The statue screamed as it sent out another attack of ear tearing soundwaves as Bernard, Corvus and Vulp attempted to shield their ears as the roaring begun to cause damage to their hearing.

_"Gaaahh! This noise is ripping my eardrums a new one! Make it stop!" _Bernard thought as he fell to his knees while clutching his ears as he looked over towards Corvus and Vulp, rolling around on the floor in pain. Turning his head, Bernard noticed Baurs, however, was not responding to the screams. _"Baurs isn't hurting- she doesn't have_ ears!" He thought, coming to a realization as he gestured for her to attack.

Realizing that he wanted her to attack, Baurs proceeded to rush towards the boulder and headbutted the large rock, causing it to begin to crack from the force of her attack. Breaking apart, the boulder broke down and the statue fell with it, hitting the ground with a thud as the screaming stopped.

"Ugh!" The statue exclaimed as a smoke cloud suddenly appeared around its body.

"Finally! Ugh!" Corvus complained as he, Bernard and Vulp rubbed the sides of their heads as the pain inducing shouting ended.

"I felt like I was about to go deaf- Huh?" Bernard said until he noticed the smoke cloud that formed around the statue.

With the smoke dissipating, the statue revealed itself to be an actual small cat with tiger-like fur, a gray tank top and the yellow Lacrima headphones on his ears, its eyes swirling to signify its unconscious state as Bernard and his team stood around the downed feline.

_"'...The hell?"'_ Bernard, Corvus and Baurs thought simultaneously with confusion.

* * *

**Glad to know I am not the only one confused, I was worried I was getting as confused as Bernard was getting. On a day where Bernard and his team of creatures were running simple errands for the members of Psycho Circus, they had learned of a string of bizarre robberies happening in the town. Interested in find the culprit, the gang ultimately found the stolen goods in the woods and the culprit: a suspiciously loud cat that was attempting to sound like it had a deeper voice than intended. Now that the cat is unconscious, what will our confused hero and his pets do next? Find out next time on Menagerie! **

**Authors Note: (Hey so since we passed 50 chapters, I thought we could have some fun so I have an announcement: A Q&A Chapter! Following the next chapter, I will post a special Questions and Answers chapter for the readers of the story. You all are probably wondering how I came up with certain aspects of this story, where the inspirations came from and stuff like that. Well I'll give you some answers if you are curious and I want to give back to you readers who stuck with me since day one last year.**

**Here are the rules: Everyone gets TWO questions each to ask anything related to Menagerie as a story and Fairy Tail in general in relation and send them to me via PM (I won't be answering in the PM, I'll answer in the chapter and if you have a question but can't PM, you may use the comments section). In the Q&A chapter, I will post the questions, the sender and my answers. Hope you can gather great questions to ask and I'll see you next time.)  
**


	53. Chapter 53

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Woods near Hemlock, 11:13 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Huddled around the tiger furred cat-like creature, Bernard and his pet team stood around the unconscious thieving feline with contemplative expressions.

"Sooo… What we looking at here?" Corvus said as he looked at the cats eye swirling comatose state as Vulp sniffed the cat and made a face of disgust over the stench of sweat permeating from it.

"A cat in a tank top that turned into a statue." Bernard said as he looked at the cat.

"And our culprit, perhaps?" Baurs asked.

"Oh definitely. You hear that garbage this thing said earlier about that that stuff being "offerings?"' Bernard said with a mocking tone.

"Pfff! Yeah, what a load! Hehe!" Corvus said with a smirk on his face as he started to chuckle as Baurs turned around and looked at the stolen objects once again.

"Why would a cat want these?" Baurs said as Bernard looked at her before turning to Vulp and noticing him rubbing his snout with his paw in a disgusted manner before moving over to the still downed cat and sniffed it, a face of horror forming on his face.

"Ugh! Good lord! I've heard cat urine is one of the worst smelling things known to man but this is a close second!" Bernard exclaimed as he held his nostrils.

"Can't be that bad- Nope! It's terrible!" Corvus said as he smelled the cat and put his wings over his beak as Bernard and Vulp held their nostrils to avoid the smell.

"If I had known the smell was this putrid, I would have brought a deodorizer or something!" Bernard shouted.

As they continued to complain, the group noticed the cat begun to stir and wake up, rubbing it head with its tiny paw as Bernard and his team watch the feline look up at them, an angry look forming on its face.

"Hey! You losers knocked me out!" The cat creature exclaimed in a shrill voice as it pointed at the group.

"After you screamed at us with a weird shockwave roar thing." Bernard replied back.

"And who you calling "losers," you little thief?!" Corvus said as he pointed his wing in the direction of the stolen exercise related objects.

"Those were- I mean, those were important offers given to me!" The cat said at first in a shrill voice before switching to a lower register, as if to sound tougher.

"Okay, then who gave them to you?" Bernard asked with folded arms.

"Myself!" The cat said as the group made bewildered faces, dumbfounded.

_"...Well I wasn't expecting that straightforward answer..."_ Bernard thought with surprise.

"And you dummies came out here and screwed with my important privacy time!" The cat exclaimed.

"Private time for what?" Baurs asked.

"I'm in training, "rockhead!"' The cat loudly said as he insulted Baurs. "I'm getting in maximum shape!" He said as he lifted his arms in a flexing motion as if he was trying to show off his tiny arms.

Bernard and the creatures, however, looked at the cat with unimpressed faces as they looked at the cat, it looking back at the group with a cocky expression before suddenly it noticed how much they didn't care.

"You stupid losers don't know anything about true physical amazement!" The cat angrily stated.

"Actually I do, I work with a guy whose muscles can become larger than his own head." Bernard said, referring to Pietro.

"Oh really? What's his routine, I could use some- Dang it! You're distracting me!" The cat said with a shrill voice before switching back to his deeper tone to complain.

"I think you're doing a good job of doing that yourself, "Mr. Whiskers." Hehe." Corvus said with a smirk as the feline creature glared at the crow Celestial Spirit.

"That is not my name!" The cat screamed.

"Then what is your name?" Baurs asked as the others looked with interest.

"It's Tavio." The cat said, revealing its name as Tavio.

"Okay then Tavio… I have a few questions and I want answers." Bernard said with folded arms.

"Only way you are getting anything out of me is if you pry it from my cold dead- Blargh!" Tavio said with a threatening tone until Baurs opened her mouth and sprayed him with a torrent of mud, sending him backwards and slamming into the rubble of the boulder.

"The hell?" Bernard said as he, Corvus and Vulp looked over at Baurs. "Hey I didn't order you do that!" He said with confusion.

"I'm sorry but I wasn't a fan of that comment he made... Hurt my feelings a tad." Baurs said.

"You have feelings?" Corvus said with a raised brow as Vulp looked at him with an unimpressed expression as Tavio wiped his face of mud and readjusting the headphones on his head before standing back up to his feet.

"That all you got?!" Tavio said with an angry expression, still wanting to fight.

"Why you wanna fight? You're obviously outnumbered and outclassed." Bernard said as he pointed at his pets.

"Shut up, you beanie sporting nerd!" Tavio said loudly as Bernard made an offended expression and clutched at his beanie in a defensive manner with Vulp making an agitated glare at the cat in response to his comment.

"Damn, told off by a cat. Hehehe." Corvus said with a chuckle as he looked at Bernard.

"I'm not a cat! I'm a tiger!" Tavio said as Corvus' funny expression turned into a wide eyed one that was suppressing rage as he slowly twisted his neck towards the cat.

"...What did you just say?" Corvus said with anger.

"My species is called an Exceed but I'm a tiger! Not some simple cat- Blarhehghf!" Tavio said, describing himself until he suddenly felt a high voltage electrical shock zap him to the point his body was charred and smoking, falling backwards onto his tiny back.

"What the- Corvus?!" Bernard said with a surprised expression.

"He stole my bit!" Corvus angrily screamed as his body sparked up. "I've been using that joke since day one and this bastard can't just appropriate my schtick!" The crow continued to rant as Bernard looked at him with confusion.

"What "schtick!?" What the hell are you talking about!?" Bernard exclaimed. "Come on, guys! We can't get any answers out of this "Exceed" thing if we keep knocking him around. Also, you might destroy the headphones and we need to return those!" He explained as he pointed at Tavio, who was attempting to stand up once more.

"Ugggh…" Tavio groaned as he stood up and walked around in a flustered manner.

"That... Really kinda hurt..." Tavio said with his shrill voice returning.

"Okay, enough! This is getting us nowhere fast! Look, Tavio… You stole a lot of stuff from the town nearby and you are going to give it back- Actually wait, quick question." Bernard said before turning back around to point at the stolen objects. "How'd you get that fifty pound dumbbell out here? You don't even look like you weigh half that much to lift it." He wondered.

"If you must know, and I hate the fact I had to, I had to sprout my wings and fly it over here to use for me regiment." Tavio said, attempting to return to his deeper voice, as he looked at Bernard.

"Ahhh, that explains the indent in the-...Hold on... Did you just say "wings?"' Bernard said before stopping himself after realizing what the Exceed said.

Following his question, Tavio released a set of angelic wings from his backside as he stood around with an unamused expression. Upon seeing this, Bernard and his pet team looked on with wide eyes of shock.

"...You have wings..." Bernard said, leaving his mouth open to signify his surprise.

"He can fly?! Seriously?!" Corvus shouted in an angry manner. "Do you have anything original about yourself that you aren't ripping off from me?!" The crow exclaimed with a ferociously upset tone.

"Shut up you turkey! I don't even like using these things to fly! I can't get any real exercise using these stupid things!" Tavio explained as he looked at his wings before putting them away.

"You have wings... Can scream very loudly and can turn yourself into stone... Fascinating..." Bernard said to himself as he rubbed his chin as Corvus, Vulp and Baurs looked at him suspiciously.

"Oh no! I know what you're thinking and the answer is a complete "hell no!"' Corvus said as he flew up to Bernard to meet him at eyelevel. "We are not letting this little punk in the gang!" The crow said as he got face to face with Bernard.

"I mean..." Bernard stuttered. "It's not everyday you see a flying cat with-" He continued until he was cut off by Tavio.

"Tiger!" Tavio reiterated.

"Sorry... It's not everyday you see a flying tiger with screaming attacks and an ability to hide as a statue. He'd sound pretty interesting as a show asset- Please stop looking at me like that..." Bernard said until he noticed everyone was still glaring at him, unenthusiastic to Bernard getting an idea to let the Exceed join his team.

"The heck you shmucks talking about?" Tavio said with his tough sounding deep voice.

"Hey uhhh… Not for nothing but I figured I might ask... You have any interest in show business at all?" Bernard said as he moved Corvus out of the way to ask Tavio. "Because I have this real neat idea for a show that could probably-" He continued until he was cut off by the tiger furred Exceed.

"As if!" Tavio said defiantly. "Like I would wanna work with you bums!" The Exceed continued as Corvus looked at Bernard.

"...It was worth a shot!" Bernard said towards the crow.

"Besides..." Tavio said, catching the attention of everyone as he started to do push ups in front of them. "Last thing I want is for anyone to see me before I become an "alpha!"' He continued.

'"Alpha?"' Baurs said confused.

"What's an "alpha?"' Corvus asked.

"It's a term for "highest rank in a species!" And I'm going to be the greatest of all the Exceeds! Once I get big and swollen from all the muscle I'll have!" Tavio explained as he switched from doing pushups to sit-ups.

_"This cats off its rocker..." _Bernard thought with a confused face. "So let me get this straight... You stole weights, protein snacks and Lacrima headphones just so you can use it for muscle building for some incredibly insecure reason?" He asked.

"I didn't steal! I took them as offers from those stores to help my cause!" Tavio said as he stood up and begun to do squats.

"...Can I zap him again?" Corvus said annoyed.

"And I can dowse him with mud?" Baurs requested.

"No and no..." Bernard replied back as he motioned the group to huddle up. "Okay look, I know it's not ideal but we have opportunity to get an incredibly unusual creature for the guild show." He tried to explain to the upset faces of his pets.

"He stole my joke and he's annoying, I say we turn him into a tiger-skin rug for the tent house!" Corvus said with folded wings.

"I concur, his comments are unabashedly groan inducing." Baurs stated as Bernard looked at Vulp.

"What about you? He hasn't done much of anything to piss you off." Bernard asked to his incredibly loyal fox companion who shrugged.

"Can't we just take the stuff he stole and just move on?" Corvus asked.

"We could but then he'd still be out here in the forest, ready to steal again." Bernard said. "Look if anything, I can see right through him. He is totally trying to act tough for the sake of some belief that he thinks he is a badass. I think we could do something with him for the show." He stated to the chagrin of his team.

"I don't know kid. He's seems like a massive jerk." Corvus said as Vulp and Baurs looked at Bernard.

"Yeah he kinda is but..." Bernard said as he looked over at Tavio, struggling to lift the weight he stole. "I don't know, he's a little cute in a weird way." He said as Vulp looked at Bernard with a surprised look.

Changing his surprised look into an enraged expression, the fox walked away from his master and comrades towards the Exceed as the feline looked up at the fox to see the anger forming in his eyes.

"The heck you wan- Plfugh!" Tavio said threateningly until Vulp suddenly turned his tail into a fist with spikes on the knuckles and socked him right in the face with a look of envious spite in its eyes.

"Vulp!?" Bernard exclaimed with surprise over the actions of the fox as Vulp turned his tail from a fist into a myriad of broadsword-like blades, looming over the now fearful Tavio threateningly.

"Did you seriously forget that Vulp likes you just as much as your own girlfriend does?! Were you not expecting him to get offended by that comment?!" Corvus shouted as he looked at Bernard.

_"The heck is with this thing!? I gotta get out of here!" _Tavio thought as he was on the ground before opening his mouth. "Aaaaahhh!" The Exceed roared loudly as he used his sound shockwave attack to push back Vulp and the others from getting closer before standing up and running through the forest on foot in the opposite direction.

After shrugging off his screams, a still enraged Vulp proceeded to show his teeth as a sign of anger and began to chase after the fleeing Exceed.

"Now Vulps got the right idea! Let get the little joke stealing bastard!" Corvus said as he flew up in the air and followed Vulp as Baurs joined in to chase down Tavio.

"Guys!?" Bernard said with shock. _"Should've expected as much... I do favors for people and all I get is craziness in return..."_ He thought with an exhausted expression.

Running through the woods and ducking under branches, Tavio rushed to get away from the angered Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental he had offended with his rudeness.

_"Stupid dog thing! I've ran laps in these woods for days! I have so much stamina, there's no- Huh?!" _Tavio thought until he looked back to notice the incredibly quick pace of Vulp, slashing down trees in an attempt to attack the Exceed. "Ahhh!" The Exceed screamed as his loud shouting reverberated throughout the woods as Corvus and Vulp caught up with Vulp to help him chase Tavio.

Reaching a downed tree, a tired Tavio bent forward while clutching his tiny knees as Vulp, Corvus and Baurs cornered him with angered expressions on their faces.

"Got you..." Corvus said with an evil smile.

"Ugh?! Um... C-Co-Come on! I can ta-take you all in my slee-sleep!" Tavio said as his deep tone cracked back into a shrill voice, showing signs of his fear while still pretending to act tough as the creatures all approached.

Suddenly, a loud stomping noise interrupted the thoughts of the animals as they all looked to their left side and noticed something large and opposing was approaching. Green fur with purple skin and a large six pack of abs with spots, a cleft chin, large arms and features similar to that of a monkey; a forest Vulcan had approached the group with a face teeming with aggravation.

"Ooh-ooh-ooh... Which of you woke me from nap?" The Vulcan said with angry eyes and broken English towards the animals.

"Uhh…" Corvus mumbled with fear at the size of the massive gorilla-like monster. "He did?" The crow said as pointed his wing towards Tavio.

"Huh?!" Tavio exclaimed as the Vulcan shifted its gaze towards the Exceed. Reaching with its massive right hand, the Vulcan grabbed Tavio by his long tail and held him upside down in the air, the Lacrima headphones falling off his head. "P-Pu-Put me down! Or I'm going to kick your-... Butt..." He said before locking eyes with the Vulcans enraged face as tears begun to form on his face.

"...Here comes the waterworks…" Corvus said as he, Vulp and Baurs looked at him begun to wildly cry.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Tavio said repeatedly towards the Vulcan as it continued to look at him with anger as he lifted up the Exceed and proceed to slam him on the ground. "Guh!" The Exceed grunted as he impacted hard with the ground, surprising the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental as the Vulcan proceeded to lift Tavio once more and slammed him down again.

"Hey!" Corvus said loudly, catching the Vulcans attention. "The hell you doing?! He said "sorry!"' The crow said, flying up to the face of the Vulcan.

"Ooh-ohh-ohh… Dumb chicken. Go away!" The Vulcan said as he took his free hand and placed it on Corvus, pushing him away as he lifted Tavio again to prepare to slam him once more.

Vulp, developing a conscience, then proceeded to turn his tail into a series of furry hands and launched them towards the arm of the Vulcan to stop it from slamming Tavio, hitting the gorilla-like monster in the wrist and causing him to drop Tavio as Corvus flew over and grabbed the Exceed by his tiny gray tank top with his talons. Unconscious once again, Tavio laid on the ground comatose as Corvus and Baurs looked at the feline.

"This is such a pain..." Corvus said with a tired expression.

"Incredibly." Baurs as she looked over as the Vulcan picked up Vulp by the tail that was wrapped around his wrist and proceeded to throw the fox towards the other creatures.

"Buh!" Corvus grunted as Vulp knocked into him as Baurs stepped back out of the way as she confronted the Vulcan as it begun to thrash about wildly.

Attempting to rush the rock lizard, Baurs opened her mouth once again and sprayed a torrent of mud at the Vulcan, aiming for its face and covering it with the brown water, blinding it. Continuing to rampage, the Vulcan wiped the mud off its face as it took its large hand and backhanded Baurs, sending her flying against nearby trees and shrubbery with its strength.

"Ooh-ooh-ooh! Angry!" The Vulcan said in a dim sounding voice as Corvus and Vulp looked up at its enraged face.

_"Dang it! I don't think I have enough power right now to do anything considerable enough against this chimp!" _Corvus thought with a worried expression as he and Vulp stood in front of Tavio, protecting the unconscious so-called "tiger."'

"Ooh-Ooh- Huh?!" The Vulcan said before it suddenly looked up and noticed a gigantic figure, much larger than itself.

Sticking out of the trees and looking at the Vulcan with a threatening gaze was a massive giant made of fluid and bony spikes that made the Vulcan appear to change its angry expression into a more docile and fearful one, afraid of the unfamiliar monster that was glaring at it.

"Aaahhh!" The Vulcan exclaimed as it ran away through the forest with no intention of fighting anymore.

"Huh? Oh hey!" Corvus muttered until he and Vulp turned around to notice the familiar sight of Formosa, the giant slime Etherious, as its shot caller, Bernard, had walked out of the woods, sweat dripping off his face.

"Why do you... Always have to… Make me... Run..." Bernard said between breaths as he was hunched over, exhausted from attempting to run after his pets. "What... Happened?" He asked as Formosa turned back into raw fluid and slithered back into Bernards Lacrima pacemaker.

"Found the obnoxious kitty, ran into a Vulcan and we kinda… Saved him." Corvus said, embarrassed over the fact.

"Oh? Thought you guys would have killed him already." Bernard said as he stood upright as Vulp approached Bernard. "Sorry for the comment earlier, I didn't mean to set you off like that." He apologized as the fox nodded in acceptance.

"Granted, it was a valid reason for us to attack." Baurs said as she turned herself up from the upside-down state she was in from being hit by the Vulcan.

As they talked, Bernard begun to notice Tavio stirring and waking up from his brutal beatdown at the hands of the gorilla-like monster.

"Hey Tavio? You okay?" Bernard said with concern as he and the other creatures approached him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Tavio said with a disgruntled yet shrill voice as he stood up, dusted himself off and walked over to pick up the Lacrima headphones.

"Sorry for trying to attack you." Corvus said with folded arms as Vulp and Baurs looked at the cat.

_"Okay good, there's some reconciliation going on here. Progress is good." _Bernard said as the cat turned to look at them and then coughing to clear his throat.

"I could've taken him you know! I could have kicked that monsters butt with my strength!" Tavio said in his deep voice as the others were shocked by the turn in attitude.

"Are you kidding me?! We just saved your dumb ass and now your acting like we're at fault for it?!" Corvus said angrily as he sparked up with Baurs and Vulp making similar displeased expressions.

"As if I needed it! I'm an alpha, I can do things on my own with nobody telling me what to do!" Tavio said with a haughty attitude as Bernards eye twitched.

_"...It wouldn't fit around his neck... But looks like there's enough room around his waist..."_ Bernard thought darkly as he examined Tavios body. "Corvus... Vulp... Baurs…" He said with a slowly building tone of anger as he reached into his back pocket.

"What now?!" Corvus shouted as he looked up at Bernard, who now had something in his hands; a red collar with a Lacrima hanging from it.

"...Hold him down and keep his mouth shut..." Bernard said menacingly as he stared at the cat.

"Wait, is that the- Ohhh... Oh this I can agree with. Hehehe." Corvus said until he realized what Bernard was holding and begun to evilly chuckle as him and his other beastly comrades proceeded to approach Tavio.

"Now get away from me you losers before I- Uhhh… Why are you getting closer?... Why do you have a collar?! Wait! Maybe we can talk about this?!" Tavio said with his deep voice until he noticed Bernard and his team were approaching, switching to his shrill tone in a sign of fear of them getting closer. "Ahh- Mrpugh!" Tavio screamed until he mouth was covered by Vulps tail.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guild, 1:17 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"And that's what happened." Bernard said as he sat at the guild bar, telling back the story of what happened outside the town with Tavio to Camilla.

"So what happened with all the stuff he took?" Camilla questioned from behind the bar.

"I managed to give back the dumbbell and the music Lacrima. As for the protein snacks, they were all worthless because they were half eaten so I ended up paying for the damages..." Bernard said disgruntled as he grabbed his drink and took a sip.

"And the headphones?" Camilla asked.

"I ended up buying them too. I figured it be a good gesture to let the little tiger thing know I was only trying to be nice to him." Bernard explained.

"Well at least you found a good use for that collar I bought." Camilla said as she looked over to a corner of the guildhall.

In the corner, doing pushups to the point his body was soaked with sweat, was Tavio. Still sporting the yellow Lacrima headphones and the gray tank top but now also sporting a red belt, that was actually a collar, around his waist with a Lacrima hanging off it with the Psycho Circus guild logo imprinted on it.

"This! Seventy-seven! Is nothing! Seventy-eight! To me! Seventy-nine! Eighty!" Tavio said with his deep tone as he continued to do pushups. _"I feel like my arms are gonna fall off!"_ He cried mentally with a shrill voice in his head.

"Soon as you reach one hundred, take a breather!" Bernard shouted as the Lacrima glowed around Tavios waist before he turned back towards his girlfriend. "I worked out a deal between him, me and the store owners. His punishment is to work at the Psycho Circus guild and follow my orders with the Obedience Collar around his waist and in exchange, I'd help supply him with time to exercise." He explained.

"Guess that's one way to get a new pet for your gang, huh? Hehehe." Camilla said with a giggle as Bernard scratched his face with a blush forming.

_"Still gotta figure out what to do with him for storage so he doesn't stink up the guild with his sweat though..." _Bernard thought as he glanced towards Tavio, still doing push ups.

* * *

**I can smell the sweat from all the way over here in the narration booth. Smells like a horses anus, yuck... The thief has been uncovered to be revealed to be a member of the feline Exceed race; an exercise obsessed "fake tough guy" routine sporting cat with a tiger-like fur scheme and a dislike for the wings of his kind named Tavio, who didn't take kindly to Bernard and his team. After managing to piss them all off, Bernard and co. decided "enough was enough" with his attitude and made him pay the price. With the Obedience Collar wrapped around his waist, Bernards Menagerie has increased to five creatures with the new addition of the roaring Exceed Tavio! But what will happen now that he has a muscle-brained feline in his team? Will there be any signs of cooperation? Only one way to see the exciting and hilarious notions and that is to wait for the next chapter! Of Menagerie! **

**Authors Note: (After this chapter, I'll post the Q&A questions and answers. And if any readers still hasn't put down any questions, don't forget to comment or PM any questions that you haven't already asked. Final reminder stuff, you know?)**


	54. QA Chapter

**This is a special Q/A Chapter for the readers who responded back to the Authors Note about it. It's mostly going to be me just answering back questions and the set up is in no particular order (expect some long answers, to be completely honest.)**

**Poster: pokemonking0924**

**Question #1: How did you come up with Bernards current beastly line up and what are they based off of? **

**Answer: To best answer that question, I first have to mention who Bernard takes inspiration from to best explain as to how I came to it. My first real inspiration towards the creation of Bernard came from last year when the game Devil May Cry 5 came out and introduced the character known as "V" as a playable character, a character whose main method of attacking was not a gun or a sword like the other characters, but three familiar creatures he used to fight back against demons. V's creatures in the game was a blue eagle-like creature that had electric based attacks named Griffon (inspiration for Corvus), a black panther-like monster named Shadow that can use shapeshifted blade attacks (partial inspiration for Vulp) and a large behemoth made of black slime with a laser attack called Nightmare (partial inspiration for Formosa.) **

**After I made those three and came up with ideas for them to be Celestial Spirits and an Etherious Demon "living weapon" thing respectively, I started to come to a point where I wasn't feeling satisfied enough with just having those three be the only things Bernard was going to have, mostly because I was worried that people were going eventually figure out the creatures I went with originally were based off V from Devil May Cry 5. From that point, I started to look into expansion ideas when I started looking into other characters from other series like Noah from Soul Eater, Matsuo from Mob Psycho 100, Katherine McDonald from Kaze no Stigma, Meiko from Ghost Sweeper Mikami (real old series from the 90s), etc and steer away from the "summoner" category and go into the "beastmaster" territory of characters for inspiration to his team. Baurs was something a friend of mine gave me inspiration for her physical design based on the diplocaulus lizard from the prehistoric era (granted, internally, I have been picturing her similarly to a Lairon from Pokémon in shape but with a longer tail). Tavio the Exceed was a recent design I had just came to and I have a plan for him to be... Very specific in usefulness...**

**Question #2: Will Marlene ever get over her crush on Bernard and fall in love with someone else like Anatoli maybe?**

**Answer: To be completely honest, I haven't really made any plans for that. My personal feelings on it; I don't really see them as a "couple," I see them more as friends, nothing more or less because I don't really see their personalities as being "compatible" with one another. **

**Poster: Kunoichi69**

**Question #1: Has Psycho Circus ever competed in the Grand Magic Games or is planning to? If so, what were their result or what were they doing during the tournament?**

**Answer: From my own writing and thoughts on the matter, I don't believe Psycho Circus ever competed in the GMG's... At least, before Bernard came back to the guild. A lot of the guilds prominent members from what I have shown so far haven't been particularly "combat-oriented" wizards, what with everyone being performers AND wizards. Camilla and Pietro and Anatoli would probably be the most physically oriented guild members to compete and I never put a real time stamp for Chester and his team joining but I don't think they would have gotten far. Like remember when everyone was going through that random stairwell obstacle course thing in the main series during the GMG arc? Yeah, if they fought in that GMG, they would have gotten as far as there, just to be completely honest on the subject, they probably wouldn't have made it against the other team and if they fought in a later one without Sabertooth or Fairy Tail competing, probably wouldn't have gotten as far there either. **

**Question #2: Do you plan on introducing any new guild member recruits in the future bssides Bernards beasts. You know, new members joining the guild?**

**Answer: Funny you mentioned that question because I was discussing that whole thing with my regular "guy I bounce ideas off of" on the subject and to answer: Yup. you will soon see some new members join the guild of Psycho Circus in the near future... Cameos included... No spoilers :)**

**Poster: MindReader247**

**Question #1: Do you take any inspirations form other anime series/manga or video games for the OC characters for this story, if so, can you name some examples?**

**Answer: As previously mentioned in a prior question, yeah I have used some inspiration from a number of things. V from DMC5 helped start the flame for what Bernards initial set up was and as I contemplated things as the story went on, I started getting more ideas from stuff like Noah from Soul Eater, Matsuo from Mob Psycho, etc, in terms of anime/manga. In terms of games, DMC5 (obviously) and some other things with summoner/beastmaster-esque characters like Phantasy Star Online 2, Diablo 3 and Borderlands 3 helped with giving some inspiration for "characters who fight with creatures actively." **

**Now in terms of Bernard, himself, most of his inspiration came from "everyman" characters to put a trope to it but to go on a rant: A major factor in Bernards character that helped to spawn his creation? My own personal dislike for series creator Hiro Mashimas handling of Lucy Heartfilia as a "summoner" character. When Mashima introduced "Star Dress" to Lucy, I felt it ruined a sense of legitimacy for her character as someone that fought predominantly with helpers. For starters, I never liked that you barely saw her ever have a real moment with her Celestial Spirits that proved she was a "great master" and she had a whip to defend herself as well but there was always an issue of Lucys "usefulness" despite having the vast majority of Gold Zodiac keys. Star Dress really broke everything when she got the ability and made the point of her summoning her Celestial Spirits be called into question because now, she had the ability to access the power of the spirits and didn't necessarily need to summon them (as shown by what happened when she broke Aquarius' key and still accessed her Star Dress). I wanted to make a character that started as a summoner/beastmaster and had a solid reason to be one and stay one, so I came up with a creative idea that would be understandable to everybody: a handicap. Bernard has a pacemaker, he shouldn't technically be on the front lines of a fight, he's just not that strong. He's not Natsu or Gray or Erza, he's not physically as adept as those characters, hence why he's a summoner/beastmaster-like character and resorts to using his brain as his weapon of choice when commanding his pet partners. Lucy has a habit of being an "everywoman" much like Bernard is supposed to be but there's a difference. They both have common sense but if you compare the two, Bernard is the more INTELLIGENT of the pair and arguably has done a much better job displaying a relationship between him and his pets that would signify a level of trust than Lucy has with her spirits, in my opinion.**

**For other characters that I have came up with from Psycho Circus, a lot of them are hard to fully define as to how I came up with them. One by one, once I came up with the gimmick that the guild was also a theatrical group with a carnival theme, I just started thinking up characters over and over and I used aspects of circus acts to help come up with ideas; acrobats, dancers, strongmen, puppeteers, giantess from freak shows, etc. Minus Camilla, she was inspired from random attractive brunette characters from different things. Personality-wise, I don't really have a solid answer, I just started to come up with stuff and it wove into a solid group of characters that would fit in the universe of Fairy Tail for an original story. **

**Question #2: Since Bernard has plans to include some more beasts to his roster and already has some things in mind, can you list some of the beasts he would like to obtain and what they would do? **

**Answer: Now in good faith, I don't think I can really answer this question when the fact that if I answer this, I would be spoiling everything for future events to the story. I'm sorry to say. But I will say this, I am currently developing more and more creatures for Bernard to add to his loadout but I will also say this: IT'S SO NOT EASY... I have storylines in order, I have ideas for all that and characters to introduce but when it comes to the beasts, this is the big struggle zone. I'm trying to find a good balance and a unique array of creatures of the species from canon and OC territories to make a uniquely designed set up. That much I can say and I'm struggling with what to put because I will say this, I have cut some from the original loadout (I was thinking of adding Jose Porlas ghost to it, an infant Forest Vulcan and even a massive grasshopper-like creature with prosthetic pickaxes for arms but I cut them due to storyline constraints I couldn't figure out what to do with and then just didn't feel confident in introducing them.) **

**Poster: SkullGreymonX **

**Question #1: Does Bernard have any acts for Camilla in his book and what are they?**

**Answer: Not really, the "Head of Security" for the Psycho Circus guild doesn't have to perform in the show so Bernard has nothing for his girlfriend.. Or the other guy... **

**Question #2: Did Camilla plan out her future with Bernard and if so, what are some of the details?**

**Answer: She doesn't, Camilla may be a bit manipulative when it comes to getting Bernard to do what she wants but I highly doubt Camilla, as a person, would really take those kinds of steps and plan her future that far in advance. She isn't Juvia, she's not OBSESSED with the guy :P**

**Poster: Guest**

**Question #1: What is the origin of Bernards beanie obsession?**

**Answer: This was more of "me" thing that I decided to just be a quirk of his. I watch a lot of anime and I noticed that very little time, major characters in anime/manga sported beanies as a clothing trait. More often, I see baseball caps and I see bandannas as "headwear" for main characters and never beanies so then I decided; "I'll make the main character wear one." And here we are, a year later and Bernard is still a beanie wearing douchebag lol. **

**Question #2: Is he afraid of going bald like his dad or something?**

**Answer: It's just a character trait that he likes them, nothing really specific to be completely honest. **

**Poster: Guest**

**Question #1: Does Bernard plan on taking that trip Anatoli mentioned anytime soon, to get more beasts for his team?**

**Answer: I can't really say because that would be spoiler territory but funny you mention that because I have been thinking of incorporating that somewhere, just not right now in the next few chapters.**

**Question #2: Will Bernard meet with the princess anytime soon and help her again or just visit?**

**Answer: Again, spoiler heavy question I don't think would be right to answer because it could ruin things for a lot of people who have cared about being surprised by the events that happens. But I won't say they won't be seeing eachother again. **

**(Side note, everyone only was supposed to get TWO questions to keep it even for everyone but I will answer the extras anyway)**

**Question #3: Is Chester based on the puppeteers from Naruto?**

**Answer: No. If anything, Chesters referential bits are a bit more obscure. Most of his puppets actually are based on the puppets from a very unknown cult horror film franchise called "Puppet Master" but retooled to work within the Fairy Tail universe (me just being a little creative).**

**Poster: Guest**

**Question #1: Does Bernard still planning on fixing his Celestial Spirit friends gate keys someday?**

**Answer: No spoilers but that will be a returning element to the story, just not yet. **

**Poster: SWAT Kat**

**Question #1: Does Anatoli pick on Marlene due to him secretly liking her? **

**Answer: Personally, nah, I don't see it like that. I think that the constant ribbing he does is just a facet of his personality as he pokes fun at everyone, not just her.**

**Question #2: What magic do you think suits Bernard the best based on previous review, things like Card Magic and Celestial Spirit Magic?**

**Answer: Well... Not to say anything specific that could lead to spoilers but Cards probably. **

**Question #3: Will there be any more Celestial Spirits joining this story? **

**Answer: I'm trying to find other avenues outside of just the Celestial Spirits, new stuff that could really make Bernard standout as a "beastmaster"-esque character from just being a simple Celestial Wizard. Angel has her Angel creatures she can summon, Capricorn (when he was possessed by Zoldeo) had his Human summoning magic of people he kidnapped and that one guy from Orochi Fin from that one chapter with Lamia Scale could beast tame thousands of ogres and wolves, I'm trying to be a little different and creative with the team and make it be a little more intriguing to the readers because frankly, yeah I could've just made Bernard a Celestial Wizard but since the Gold Keys are all taken by Lucy and Yukino, it would leave me with the weaker Silver Keys, I just feel like I couldn't make Bernard seem "legitimately believable" as a fighter with just the silver spirits, given how weak they are in the canon.**

**Question #4: Will Bernard tame any monsters girls similar to the anime/manga series "Everyday Life with Monster Girls" also known as Monster Musume? **

**Answer: No. If anything, Marlene sorta counts as a monster girl if you think about it?... Nevermind lol.**

**Poster: DarthMonkey**

**Question #1: What inspired you to create this circus themed guild?**

**Answer: I don't really know completely... I once heard the name and I just felt it was an awesome sounding name for a group or something: "Psycho Circus." Then once I thought of putting it on a guild for this fanfic, I actually decided to take it more literal and put it into a guild with a circus theme to it to help with my OC creations. Trust me, when it comes to writing, if you have a theme to something; if you stick to it, characters become easier to think up but it's also still a matter of your own level of creativity.**

**Question #2: When Bernard does finally start learning magic, will he be figuring it out himself or will a character from the series be his teacher?**

**Answer: Now this question could be spoiler territory but I think I can answer this without it being too problematic. Bernard will learn his magic by himself. Way I sees it, his teacher in the story is Pietro who teaches him the ins and outs of wizardry as a guy who is "late to the party" but he isn't teaching Max Muscle Magic like what he can do, he's more teaching him reactionary and coordinative combat with his team and helping him to hone his leadership skills as Bernard is expected to be the leader of the guild one day. But his main method of offense and magic? I'll still leave that hidden from everyone. lol**

**And that is the end of our Q&A chapter, I thank you all for your participation with the questions and ill see you next time for the next chapter!**


	55. Chapter 54

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Tent House, 6:56 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Early in the morning, inside the tent next door from the Psycho Circus guildhall, Bernard and Camilla were laying together on their bed with Bernard, dressed in a pair of orange shorts and a black t-shirt, laying face first on the pillow on his side of the bed.

"Haaa…" Bernard yawned as he twisted his head up slightly as he continued to lay chest first on the bed. _"...I'm seriously never going to get used to doing guild requests... Stupid long trip missions..."_ He thought as he rubbed his head with his hand, groggily.

Turning his head to the side over the bed, Bernard looked down at the sight of a sleeping Exceed cat with an orange and black striped color scheme with a grey tank top and a collar with a Lacrima with the Psycho Circus guild logo around its waist, sleeping on an old mat and snoring loudly.

"Big... And strong... Hehe..." Tavio said in his sleep as he smirked, dreaming about his desire of becoming buff.

_"Obnoxious little thing..." _Bernard thought as he looked over the side of the bed, annoyed. _"__Every time we kept running into monsters or bandits out in the wild, he kept trying to pick fights with everything and I had to have the others keep bailing him out of_ _trouble..."_ He thought as he looked away from Tavio towards the headboard of the bed. _"But I have him now anyway just like Vulp and the others so I gotta figure out what to do with him sooner than later..." _Bernard continued to think as he looked at the headboard.

Unbeknownst to the young man was his bedmate, Camilla, dressed in a green tank top and brown shorts, stirring in her sleep as she shifted from her side of the bed.

"Huh?- blargh!" Bernard muttered until he noticed something suddenly pressed down on his backside, forcing his face back into the pillow as something soft begun to push against the back of his head.

Tilting his head slightly to see what was pressing on him, Bernard looked back to see an asleep Camilla on top of his back with her large breasts on the back of his head, the weight of her chest now forcing his head deeper into the pillow as she unconsciously wrapped her arms around Bernards neck and shoulders from behind.

_"The hell?! Is this another seduction attempt?!" _Bernard mentally questioned as he looked back to notice her eyes still closed and a bit of drool dripping out of her mouth.

"Heghehg… Caramel chocolates..." Camilla mumbled in her sleep with a smirk on her face as she dreamed about confectionaries as Bernard looked back at her with surprise.

_"Wait, she's actually asleep right now?!"_ Bernard thought bewildered as he looked at his girlfriend drool as her boobs continued to press his head and face into his pillow. "Bah! Guh!" He grunted as he struggled to breathe as her chest begun to cause him to be smothered between her breasts and his pillow. _"All these years I've been worried about dying from a heart attack. But now there's a high chance I'm going to die via cleavage!" _Bernard thought with an aggravated expression as he kept trying to move his face off the pillow for oxygen.

Finally managing to shift his body in just the right way, Bernard twisted around to where his body was now facing upright and took a deep breath to finally get some air in his lungs.

"Gaah! Oh than- plufpgh!" Bernard said until he was suddenly cut off by the soft feeling of a pair of cushy mounds pressing into his face, smothering him once again.

On top of him and with her arms still wrapped around his head, the still asleep Camilla had now proceeded to tightly pull his head deep into her breasts. While in her dreaming state, Camilla proceeded to bite down on top of Bernards head, still dreaming about sweets as her teeth bit into his skull.

"Yeouch!" Bernard exclaimed in pain as Camilla continued to dig her teeth into her boyfriends head. _"Argh! Okay, I take back all the times I thought her kissing me was annoying, this is worse!" _He thought as he violently flailed his arms as Camilla continued to squeeze him.

In an effort to escape the hell of softness that was preventing him from breathing, Bernard put his hands on Camillas waistline and tried to push her off, inadvertently rubbing his face on her chest in the process. Rolling around left and right on the bed, Bernard tried to separate from Camillas grasp as they continued to shift around the bed until Bernard twisted around and caused the two of them to reach the edge of the bed where Tavio was.

"Waaahh!" Bernard exclaimed as he finally got his face unstuck from his girlfriends breasts as they both fell off the side of the bed.

"Buff and- thlarh!" Tavio snored and talked to himself in his sleep until the sudden feeling of two bodies landing on top of him caused him to grunt in pain as he felt like his soul was beginning to leave his body.

"Ugh..." Bernard said as he landed on top of Tavio with Camilla on top of Bernard, her eyes finally beginning to open.

"Huh? Bernard?" Camilla said with confusion as she begun to stir awake, looking around at the fact she was on the ground. "The heck are we doing on the ground?" She asked as she got off of Bernard to a standing position.

"...Two words... "Caramel chocolates."' Bernard said disgruntled while on all fours before pointing at the bite mark on his head, prompting Camilla to blush in embarrassment as she begun to realize what he was referring to.

"Uh!" Camilla mumbled with surprise as she suddenly rushed to wipe the drool from her mouth. Turning his head away, Bernard looked down at Tavio as he noticed the Exceeds unconscious state.

"Hey Tavio, you okay?" Bernard asked out of concern as he and Camilla looked down at the Exceed.

"...I'm... Fine... My pecs are strong enough to... Withstand anything..." Tavio said with swirling eyes, partially knocked out.

"Yeah sure..." Bernard replied, unconvinced by the tiger-furred cats attempt to sound tough.

"Any luck with maybe getting a container or something for him?" Camilla asked as she bent forward while looking at Bernard.

"No luck... I've been working on and off in the archive room trying to find a spell that I could learn that could hold Tavio to make him be easier to carry around and not be out all the time but I've still got nothing. It's been over a week..." Bernard explained.

"Find something soon, please? Because I'm sick of walking in here and smelling his awful sweaty stench..." Camilla said as she walked away towards the changing curtain to get dressed.

"...Easier said than done..." Bernard muttered as he continued to look at the unconscious Tavio.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Psycho Circus Guildhall, 10:10 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

As the other members of the Psycho Circus guild went about their usual business; getting drunk from the bar and working on requests off the guild job board. Bernard, alongside his crew of pets, were in a custom room made by his father that was used for practicing routines for the Ultimate Carnival shows as Bernard kneeled down and looked at Tavio, who was standing on top of a small box.

"Come on..." Bernard said as the tiger-furred Exceed made a face of defiance.

"No." Tavio replied bluntly as Corvus, Baurs and Vulp had watched on.

"Still being a little nuisance, huh?" Corvus said towards Bernard as he scratched his head.

"Look, it's not that hard to do and it's just a test run so just-" Bernard explained before being cut off.

"I said no, "Ber-nerd!" The only thing I'm doing today is pushups, squats, sit-ups and a five kilometer run!" Tavio angrily exclaimed in his fake deep voice as Bernard looked at the Exceed with a twitch in his eye.

"Pfff…" Corvus snorted with a chuckle over Tavios insulting name directed at the crows master.

"Hey!" Bernard shouted as he looked at Corvus.

"Why aren't you just ordering him with the collar around his waist?" Baurs questioned as Vulp walked over to Bernard.

"I'm not trying to be an ass when it comes to this whole "ordering" thing." Bernard stated as he petted Vulp on the head, the fox making a joyful expression in response. "Just like with the acts with everyone else in the guild, I gotta treat you guys as individuals so I'm trying to be as respectful as possible... Well, as best I can anyway." He continued.

"Funny... You and the word "ass" seem like a match made in heaven." Corvus said with a smirk as Bernard glared at the crow with annoyance. "Just kidding dude, calm your butt. Hehe." The crow said in response.

"I'll say..." Tavio said disgruntled with his arms folded as his words prompted a harsh look from Corvus and Vulp, directed at the Exceed.

"Hey..." Corvus said with a serious face directed towards Tavio, catching the cats attention. "You better listen to the kids orders or we're gonna have a problem, you flying feline punk... He's being nice to you, we don't." The crow said as his body sparked up as Vulp joined in with the threatening towards the Exceed as the foxes fur started to move on its own.

"Eep!" Tavio muttered in his shrill voice as he noticed the Celestial Spirits begun to look like they were ready to attack him.

"Enough! No "infighting," okay?" Bernard said, speaking up as Corvus, Vulp and Tavio calmed down. "Besides..." He continued as he picked up Tavios headphones that were on the floor. "I still gotta try this idea I had out..." Bernard said.

"Are the Lacrima headphones involved with Tavios act?" Baurs asked out of curiosity as Bernard nodded.

"Thought of an idea to use Tavios loud and childish screaming-" Bernard said until Tavio cut him off.

"You mean "manly roars!"' Tavio exclaimed, trying to defend himself as the others looked at him with unimpressed expressions.

"Whatever... You were saying?" Corvus replied before asked of Bernard to continue.

"Using Tavios screams and these headphones, I might be able to try out something incredibly creative here for Tavios act." Bernard said as he reached into his pockets.

Pulling out a small thin crystal Lacrima, Bernard placed the gem into one of the insertion points around the ear covers.

"That a music Lacrima?" Corvus said with a raised brow as he flew over to Bernard shoulder, picking up the headphones from his masters hands. "What we gotta hear in these- Huh?!" The crow said as he turned on the Lacrima, a sudden blast of loud guitar, woodwind instruments and drums then blasted directly into his ears as the sound popped his eardrums and made him fall off Bernards shoulder.

"The volume was full blast, you know? If you had given me a minute to alter the knob, you wouldn't be bleeding out your eardrums." Bernard said casually as he picked up the headphones from the ground and lowered the volume. As he fixed the headphones, Corvus rolled around on the floor in pain as Vulp looking at his comrade with confusion.

"Ugh! What the hell was that noise?! Can that even be called "music?!"' Corvus complained as he picked at his earholes to stop the ringing.

"Yes, it's music! It's one of my favorite genres!" Bernard said in defense of his music tastes.

"What is it?" Tavio questioned.

"It's a combination of punk music with jazzy tones that sounds awesome when you just want something to bang your head to while you lay on a bed." Bernard said with a smile on his face as he described the music.

"Sounds lame." Tavio remarked as Bernard made an annoyed expression.

"I like metal music myself but the jazzy tones weren't really my thing." Corvus said, giving criticism.

"I'm partial to jazzy sounds. Don't really understand the value of "metal" or "punk" music, to be honest." Baurs stated.

"You wouldn't understand it, good music to bang your head to is a special kind of thing." Bernard explained.

"I prefer music with a thumping beat to it." Tavio said as he joined in with the conversation.

"No surprise there, given what you took from that headphone store." Bernard said with a smirk towards the cat.

"They were "offerings" to my cause!" Tavio exclaimed.

"We've heard, shut up already." Corvus said with annoyance as he continued to pick at his earholes.

"What about you?" Bernard said as he turned his attention towards Vulp.

Vulp, using his magic fur, proceeded to grow a large amount of hair around the top of his head, growing so much that it stretched to the floor. Banging his head in different directions with the large mop of hair waving about, Bernard and Corvus looked on with chuckles forming as they saw Vulp headbang before putting his fur back to normal.

"Well that was interesting." Baurs said casually as Tavio looked at Vulp.

"I'm surprised your neck didn't snap." Tavio said.

"Okay, enough goofing around, let's get to it." Bernard said as he walked over to Tavio and placed the headphones on his ears. "Okay, I need you to use that roaring thing you do and match it to the volume of the music." He explained as Tavio looked at him with aggravation.

"No! I'm not doing some dumb act in your stupid show!" Tavio said defiantly.

_"Okay, that does it..."_ Bernard thought as he bit his lip. "Tavio, stand straight and don't move." He said as Tavios body started to glow from the Obedience Collar as he begun to follow Bernards order, standing straight with his arms at his sides.

"Gah!" Tavio mumbled in surprise.

"Tavio, open your mouth and harmonize your roar with the music in the headset. Say "ahhh."' Bernard said as Tavio opened his mouth and begun to softly roar as the beanie sporting wizard turned on the Lacrima headphones and the jazzy punk music begun to play.

As Tavios mouth begun to emit an "ahhhh" sound, the sound of the music from the Lacrima headphones begun to come out of Tavios mouth, prompting the Exceed to quickly place his hands over his mouth as he realized he was expelling sounds that weren't his voice.

"Whoa, what the hell was that?!" Corvus said in surprise as Vulp opened his eyes wide.

"He's almost like a record player." Baurs said.

"Aha! I knew that would work!" Bernard exclaimed in joy. "The magic in the Lacrima I put in the headphones combined with the captured sounds basically worked to turn you into a speaker!" He explained as Tavio made an appalled expression as he listened.

"This his act?" Corvus questioned.

'"Tavio: The Tone Tiger!"' Bernard said in a presentation style. "Got a nice ring to it, right?" He asked with a confident face.

'"Nope."' Corvus and Baurs said in response as Vulp shook his head left and right, signifying a negative response as Bernard put his head down in a sulking manner.

"Okay... I'll go back to the drawing board on the name..." Bernard replied.

"...I can't believe this..." Tavio said as he fell to all fours, the others looking at him with confusion. "...I've been reduced to a music box!" The Exceed exclaimed with a tone of despair. "I'll never become a muscular alpha now!" Tavio shouted as his screams reverberated slightly throughout the room, prompting the others to grabbed their ears to avoid taking damage to their hearing.

"Hey, take it easy!" Bernard said in an effort to calm Tavio down. "It's not that big a deal!" He continued as Tavio fell silent.

"Speaking of "big deals," mind explaining that?" Baurs said as she caught everyones attention before pointing her tail over to another corner of the room.

In the direction of where she pointed, everyone looked at the unusual sight of Formosa, the giant slime Etherious, standing in a corner. However, instead of its usual golem-like form, Formosa was merely shaped in a blob of red, black and blue fluid with the top of the bulging mass having multiple bone spikes sticking from the top and a small pair of green eyes.

"Oh yeah sooo… I had Formosa come out and I asked it to just take a basic form that's just a mound of sludge instead of the large hulking form or the speed thing." Bernard said as he scratched the back of his neck. "I'm trying to come up with ideas for it and... Not gonna lie, kinda struggling." He said honestly.

"Oh? Has the great "beanie sporting circus genius" hit a creative block? Hehehe." Corvus said jokingly.

"Shut up!" Bernard exclaimed as he glared at the crow Celestial Spirit before walking over to the twenty foot tall blob of Etherious slime. "I'm still figuring things out with you..." He said as he looked up at the motionless Formosa.

"After the "parade float" thing, I'm half expecting this thing to blow holes throughout the guildhall." Corvus said as he looked over at Bernard with Vulp.

"That's the thing I want to avoid. I can't really come up with any acts for this thing because it's so dangerous... Laser beams, an amorphous body and a bunch of spikes all over the place, it's not that easy coming up with anything that wouldn't result in the audience running for the hills." Bernard said as he looked over towards his other beasts. "Speaking of routines, rollcall; what's everyone doing for their parts?" He asked of the group.

"Electrical fireworks display." Corvus said.

'"Immovable Object" defense act." Baurs stated.

"And Vulp, you're running an obstacle course, right?" Bernard asked as the fox Celestial Spirit nodded in agreeance. "And we got Tavio with a music act." He said as he pointed at the still dejected Tavio on the box before he bit his lip. "That's... Not enough." He said as the others looked at him. "We couldn't fill enough of a time slot for the ticket pricing we would need to get to building a budget for the guildhalls improvements..." Bernard said as he looked up.

"Yeaaahhh…" Corvus said as he looked up at the old coloring of the red and yellow tent they were in and then over to the relatively chipped wooden support beams holding up the room. "Place could seriously use an update." The crow said as Baurs and Vulp looked up.

"...A music box!" Tavio exclaimed in anger as his screams percussed through the room once more.

"Alright we get it already, Tavio!" Bernard said as he told him to stop complaining. "Anyway, like I was trying to say, the big issue with trying to get this place looking cleaner and better maintained is funding. I've got ideas for some things I think would really improve this place, maybe even get new members... But all that stuff costs Jewels and I ain't got any to spend on something that extravagant..." He said begrudgingly.

"We could go on more guild jobs, if that will help?" Baurs said.

"No amount of guild jobs is going to net us enough money for the improvements, unless we're talking S-class level jobs and I'd still have to take into account the fact I'd have to share the funds with Camilla." Bernard explained.

"What about the other guy? There's supposed to be two S-class wizards in Psycho Circus, yeah?" Corvus asked as Bernard bit his lip.

"Yeaaaahhh… Kind of a rule not to talk about... Him..." Bernard said as he rubbed his neck.

"Huh?" Tavio said, finally snapping from his depressing state to join in the conversation.

"Why's that?" Baurs asked.

"...You want to hear a long and painful story about intimate nighttime escapades with a variety of women that may or may not pertain to members of this guild...? And from other towns...? And some who were in committed relationships already...? I might be saying too much already..." Bernard said with an aggravated tone as he rubbed his forehead.

"Okay, I'm super interested. Start talking!" Corvus said with interest as the others looked at their master.

"You sure? This could get very long winded and if one of our female members walks in, we might traumatize them by speaking his name." Bernard said with an unsure tone.

"Damn it! Now I want to know more!" Corvus said, getting excited as Vulp, Baurs and Tavio looked on.

"Alright, to start, the other S-class wizard, or "he who shall not be named out loud," was our only S-class wizard for the longest time and since Camilla beat the guy, she practically did the unthinkable." Bernard explained. "No one has ever gotten close to beating him in the S-class challenge fight thing we do in the guild to decide S-class wizards. Camilla told me horror stories of the few times she had challenged him before she finally won and the bets she made were ridiculously embarrassing for her losing." He continued.

"This guy sounds amazing." Corvus said with a pervy smile on his face.

"What's his name?" Baurs asked.

"Not really a good idea to say his name..." Bernard said as he rubbed his neck.

"Whisper it?" Tavio questioned.

"...Alright, come here. Oh, almost forgot, one sec. Formosa! Come on back!" Bernard said as he motioned for everyone to come closer as he pointed at the giant blob form of Formosa, causing the slime Etherious to slither over to Bernard and return to its slumber within his Lacrima pacemaker. "So anyway, here's the gist, the guys name is-" He begun to talk until someone entered the room.

"Yo Bernie!" Anatoli exclaimed as he rolled in on his ball.

"Oh come on! We were just getting started!" Corvus complained loudly.

"Huh?" Anatoli muttered with confusion.

"Don't mind him, I was about to tell them the story of... "You know who."' Bernard said as Anatolis' eyes widened.

"Seriously? You were gonna talk about- oh nevermind, that's not important right now!" Anatoli said before suddenly realizing he was getting off topic. "Bernie, we need to get going!" He exclaimed.

"Huh? Why?" Baurs said as the others looked at the chimp-like man.

"Kiernan's Pastries has a new product, sponge cakes soaked in alcohol!" Anatoli said as Bernards eyes widened.

"...Why has no one told me this!?" Bernard said as he looked at his fellow guildmate.

"Guess it's snack time?" Corvus said with a smirk.

"Hell yeah!" Bernard said.

"Hell no!" Anatoli said, catching Bernards attention.

"...Excuse me?" Bernard said with a concerned and crazed look in his eyes.

"I was going into town to get some and a fight broke out between two wizards in front of Kiernans!" Anatoli explained as Bernard stared at him.

"Huh?!" Corvus said as the others approached behind Bernard.

"One of them was this guy who had this guild logo on their back that look like a two with a line through it and the other was sporting this pink letter "M" on her clothes." Anatoli explained as Bernard just continued to look at Anatoli with a wide eyed expression of insanity.

"...Everyone... Inside... Now..." Bernard said in a strange tone as Corvus and Vulp turned into light particles and Baurs turned into her bracelet form before he turned to Tavio and grabbed him by his tail.

"Yeowch!" Tavio exclaimed as Bernard dragged him behind him as he ran out the practice room and rushed by the rest of the guildmembers, nearly bumping into Camilla as she quickly got out the way to avoid dropping her platter of drinks.

"Hey?! Bernard?!" Camilla said as she watched her boyfriend run out the guildhall while dragging his pet tiger-furred Exceed. As she readjusted herself, Anatoli approached her. "What got into him?" She asked.

"There's a fight going on in front of Kiernans!" Anatoli said as Camillas eyes widened.

Her hands loosening, Camilla dropped her platter as the glasses fell on the floor and breaking into many pieces before shifting her attention towards the front door of the guild and quickly rushing out of it. As she ran out the guild with Anatoli following behind, Nole and Andy were walking over to where Camilla dropped the shattered glass.

'"Ow!"' Nole and Andy said in unison as they felt a shard of glass stab them in one of their conjoined feet.

* * *

**Uh oh... I don't think this will end well. An odd day some time after Bernard acquired Tavio, Bernards day consisted of him nearly being smothered by his girlfriends voluptuous chest and then spending time with his pets learning their routines for his animal themed Menagerie show but as soon as he was about to tell his pets the story of the guilds other S-class wizard, Anatoli came in to tell Bernard some concerning news as there was a fight between a pair of wizards in front of Kiernan's Pastries. With an insanely worried expression, Bernard ran off while dragging Tavio and this narrator has become worried because I was planning to go later to Kiernan and get a bagel! Whoever is in front of that place wrecking it, I hope you burn in hell!... Sorry, see you next time. **

**Authors Note: (Sorry this took so long to come out, I took a slight break to get some rest after the Q/A chapter and now I am back at it.)**


	56. Chapter 55

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hemlock, 12:01 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

In front of the popular pastry shop known as Kiernan's Pastries, a small crowd of townsfolk stood around with fearful expressions as they looked at the confrontational state of two individuals giving eachother a stare down with faces of agitation.

"What's going on?" A random member of the crowd said as they approached another passerby.

"It's insane! These two wizards started to get into a shouting match while they were in the line for Kiernan's!" The guy in the group said in response as everyone looked at the two wizards giving themselves nasty glares.

One of the two wizards was a tall male with an exposed chest and backside, revealing his abs and his brown guild logo on his back shaped like a number two with a line through it. Dressed in a pair of dark blue shoulder guards and sleeves, a pair of brown baggy pants that stopped above his shins and black martial arts-style shoes, his black hair was tied back in a white covered bun standing on his head and hanging off his white belt was a brown gourd used for storing liquor.

The other one was a short woman with dark skin wearing a blue tube top around her chest and sporting a loincloth over her lower half of a similar color with a pink capital "M" on the front. Dressed in a pair of sandals and a white headband with her large curly hair flowing down her backside, her most notable feature was her considerable girth with her large belly, thighs and arms appearing to make her look like she was bordering on obesity.

"Whoa there "tubs!" What makes you think you're going to cut in front of me?!" The semi-armored man said with a grin and a glare with his cheeks partially red, signifying he was somewhat drunk.

"And for the thirtieth time, I didn't cut in line but with that stench of cheap hooch on your body, I bet you're seeing more of me to think that!" The chubby woman said in response.

"Ha! With that size of your gut, I was seeing "thirty" of you before I even took a sip!" The semi-armored man retorted as his body started to glow from his magical energy.

"Is that right? You want a piece of me, you walking glass of tonic and rum!?" The chubby woman said with an angry smile on her face as she begun to glow with her power as well.

"Remember the Grand Magic Games a good number of years ago?" The drunken wizard said as he grabbed the gourd on his white belt and took a swig of it. "I beat your butt in that one race we did, what makes you think you'd even stand a chance against me in a fair fight?" He continued in his stupor.

"Funny, all I remembered from that tournament was you getting your butt handed to you by that little freak, Ichiya, from Blue Pegasus!" The short chubby woman said with a cocky grin as the drunk begun to get agitated.

"Ohhhh… You Mermaid Heel broads really do a good job getting under a guys skin..." The drunk said with a twitch in his face.

"And you Quatro Cerberus jackoffs do a real good job pretending to be "tough guys" when all you guys are a bunch of "Quatro Puppies!"' The chubby woman said with her arms folded as the two locked eyes to the point where bolts of lightning could practically be seen between the pair as the crowd cowered in fear from the sight of the wizards picking a fight between eachother.

Arriving to see the small crowd was Camilla and Anatoli, in search of a certain beanie wearing friend of theirs as they looked around at the congregation of watchers.

"Anatoli, you see him?" Camilla asked.

"No, hold on." Anatoli replied as he quickly stood up on his ball, looking over the crowd to see the guild wizards glaring at eachother in the center. "Whoa, they look like they're about to start brawling soon!" He said as he scratched his face.

"Who cares, just find Bernard or one of his pets!" Camilla exclaimed as Anatoli continued to scan around the mass of people.

_"Come on, where are you already?!"_ Anatoli thought as he continued to look around. "Oh I found him!" The chimp-like man shouted.

"Where is he?!" Camilla said with a worried tone.

"He's... Sneaking around the back of the crowd..." Anatoli said surprised and bewildered as Camilla used her magic to form a box under her feet to get a better look.

"The heck is he doing!?" Camilla exclaimed.

Clinging to the walls of the bakery, Bernard, with Tavio being held in his arms and his hands over the cats mouth, was attempting to try and get around the crowd to get into the shop without anyone noticing. Ignoring the fight that was starting to brew, Bernard managed to sneak in as Camilla and Anatoli tried to move through the crowd to get to him.

"Hello, Mrs. Kiernan!" Bernard said with a smile as he held Tavio in one of his arms, headlock style.

"Oh? Hello Bernard. Do you see what's going on outside?" Mrs. Kiernan said as she looked over the counter at the crowd in front of her business.

'"Outside?" Oh that? Yeah, I wasn't really paying attention, I was more concerned about something else." Bernard said as he looked back at the crowd.

"What's that?" Mrs. Kiernan asked.

"Cake with rum?" Bernard said as he squeezed hard on Tavios sternum, the Exceed struggling to breathe.

"Gah! Let go of me!" Tavio complained as Bernard loosened his grip on the cat as he jumped down to the ground.

"Sorry Tavio, I'm just excited." Bernard apologized.

"Cute kitty friend you have there, Bernard." Mrs. Kiernan said as she looked at the small tiger-like Exceed.

"Who you calling "cute?!" And I'm not a friend of this nerd!" Tavio said as he pointed at Bernard, who looked at the cat with annoyance. "And you, why the hell do you like places like this? Do you know how much sugar and calories this stuff is?" The cat continued.

"Because I like quality snacks!" Bernard exclaimed in his defense of his obsession with pastries. "I normally go here when the occasion is special." He explained.

"Isn't this the third time this week you've come in?" Mrs. Kiernan said as Bernard bit his lip with embarrassment.

"Yeah but this is a special occasion with a new product I want to try! Okay?!" Bernard said, attempting to defend himself once again. _"It's a day ending in a "Y," that's enough of a reason for me!" _He thought, mentally justifying himself.

"Would you like a snack, little kitty?" Mrs. Kiernan said with a smile towards Tavio.

"I have a name! And no, unless its got mountains of protein, I ain't eating squat!" Tavio complained.

"Oh? I actually make high protein brownies." Mrs. Kiernan said as she pointed at the display case at a set up of chocolate brownies as Tavios eyes widened and looked at the brownies.

"I'll take twelve!" Tavio exclaimed with drool coming from his mouth.

"Hey! We're buying my rum cake first!" Bernard said as he watched Tavio place his face against the glass.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea Bernard. Especially with what's going on out there." Mrs. Kiernan said as she pointed outside.

"Yeah but... Come on Mrs. Kiernan! You know I'm good for it!" Bernard said in a begging tone.

"No he ain't!" Said a familiar female voice as Bernard turned around and noticed the sight of Camilla and Anatoli behind him.

"Oh hey, you guys want some cake?" Bernard said with a smirk as Camilla and Anatoli put their hands on their faces in disbelief.

"Dude, now is seriously not the time for this!" Anatoli said while shaking his head.

"There's a fight about to break out less than a few feet from where we are standing and you're buying snacks right now?!" Camilla said with a mildly angry tone.

"But it's not like- murgph!" Bernard said until Camilla put her hand over her boyfriends mouth.

"No! No "buts," we gotta stop that fight outside from- huh?" Camilla tried to explain until she and Anatoli turned around and noticed the pair of wizards outside were now in the bakery and glaring at the Psycho Circus wizards.

"What you punks think you're doing?!" The drunk Quatro Cerberus wizard said.

"Yeah, no cutting the line!" The chubby Mermaid Heel wizard reiterated.

"Funny, coming from the pair of oddballs picking a fight outside!" Anatoli said confrontationally.

"Who you calling odd, you shirtless chimp?!" The drunk Quatro Cerberus wizard said as he glared at him.

"You're one to talk about "shirtlessness!"' Anatoli exclaimed angrily as he pointed at the exposed torso of the Quatro Cerberus wizard.

"Hey! No fighting!" Camilla said as she got between Anatoli and the drunk. "Look, whatever is going on, we can talk it out like reasonable people!" She said, attempting to squash the problems from getting any worse.

"Excuse me but there is a certain issue here that can't be squashed by simply talking and that's line cutting!" The chubby Mermaid Heel wizard said as she pointed at Bernard.

"I'm sorry, what?!" Bernard said in an offended tone.

"You heard me, kid!" The chubby Mermaid Heel wizard said. "I want to kick this guys butt but there's an etiquette to lines that's customary." She said as she pointed at the drunk before locking eyes with Bernard.

"Well I'm a local so I get first dibs!" Bernard said defiantly as he locked eyes with the chubby woman.

"You're seriously not helping right now!" Camilla shouted towards her boyfriend as she stood between everyone.

"Who the heck do you guys think you are saying that kind of trash towards us?!" Anatoli said angrily.

"I'm Bacchus! I'm from the Quatro Cerberus guild." The drunk wizard said, revealing his name.

"Risley Law! From Mermaid Heel!" The chubby wizard said, revealing her name.

"Good for you! But you're the ones causing the problem around here, not us!" Bernard said as he and Anatoli stood next to eachother, glaring at Risley and Bacchus.

"Can all of you just-" Camilla shouted as she attempted to get everyone to stop until she was cut off.

'"You want to take this outside?!"' Bernard, Anatoli, Bacchus and Risley exclaimed at eachother.

"The walking bottle of rum is mine!" Anatoli said towards Bernard as he begun to crack his knuckles.

"I got the fatso!" Bernard said in response.

"This is gonna get wild!" Bacchus said with a smirk as Risley looked at Bernard.

"Don't mess with "chubby power," "beanie boy!"' Risley said with an angry look towards Bernard as Camilla looked towards Mrs. Kiernan, a worried expression on the old ladies face.

Suddenly, as the four begun to look like they were about to brawl in the bakery, a set of clear yellow barrier panels formed in front of the four fighting wizards as they all turned towards Camilla with her raised hand glowing and a stern look in her eyes.

"No! No fighting in here! Take it outside!" Camilla shouted as everyone looked at her and noticed the seriousness in her face before looking at eachother with contemplative expressions.

"...Actually yeah, we might not want to fight in here." Anatoli said as he rubbed the back of his neck, the others beginning to agree.

"Could ruin the place." Risley said as Bernard and Bacchus nodded slightly.

"Don't want to lose the chance for cake." Bacchus said as he took out his gourd and took another swig.

"Agreed." Bernard stated as he motioned for everyone to go outside.

As they all walked outside surprisingly casually, Camilla put both of her hands on her face as a sign of frustration before turning towards Mrs. Kiernan, visibly confused and scared as the S-class wizard approached her with a reassuring look.

"I'm sorry for everything they were doing, Bernard likes this place so I hope you don't ban him or Anatoli or anyone from Psycho Circus over this." Camilla said.

"It's fine, that was a nice job you did keeping everyone from destroying my business but... I'll feel safer when they hash out their- Ahhh!" Mrs. Kiernan said until she was cut off by the sound of a loud crashing noise outside.

"What the hell?!" Camilla screamed as she turned around to notice the crowd of people from before dispersing. _"I'm seriously going beat those two to death!" _She thought with anger welling up inside as she turned back towards Mrs. Kiernan. "Excuse me a minute, please?" Camilla said with a tired smile.

"Someone's going to call the Magic Council on all of them, you know?" Mrs. Kiernan said as she walked towards the back.

"And if they do, it'd be a real help..." Camilla said as she walked out of the bakery.

Looking to her right, Camilla looked on as Anatoli was floating above the ground on his ball with a small tornado of wind around him and his ball as Bacchus was standing on the ground in a martial arts pose in the middle of the street. Shifting her head in different directions, she attempted to find her boyfriend and the Mermaid Heel wizard, Risley.

_"Now where the hell is he!?" _Camilla thought as she shook her head.

"Hiyah!" Anatoli exclaimed as he swung his arms and a series of wind blades begun to fire towards Bacchus.

"My soul's on fire right now!" Bacchus said with a smirk as he begun to swing his arms vertically and horizontally in karate chops, smacking away the air blades with his bare hands.

_"What the- he swiped away my attack with only his_ _palms!?"_ Anatoli thought with surprise as he floated higher into the air.

"Come on down here so I can pound you!" Bacchus said with a smirk as he slammed his leg on the ground, causing it to crack. With the cracks forming in the concrete, Bacchus picked up one of the pieces of rubble with his hand and proceeded to pitch it towards Anatoli.

"Ha! Just try it, booze hound! Wind Barrier!" Anatoli exclaimed as he put his arms together as a barrier of wind formed around himself. _"Like a rock can pierce my wind- whoa!"_ He thought as the rock that Bacchus threw pierced his barrier as it zipped past his head like a bullet from a gun.

"You said "try it!" So let me try again!" Bacchus said with a cruel grin as he chucked another piece of concrete at ultra fast speed towards Anatoli in the sky, the chimp-like acrobat trying to dodge as Bacchus continued to throw rocks at him.

_"So much for using the distance game! Gotta go close_ _range!"_ Anatoli thought with frustrations as he swung his right arm around as a tornado formed around his bicep and forearm. "Tornado Clothesline!" He exclaimed as he flew down on his ball and lunged towards Bacchus for a close range attack.

"Not smart!" Bacchus said as he closed his fist and extended his arm in a strike, hitting Anatoli right in the abdomen.

"Blugh!" Anatoli screamed as his arm tornado dispelled and he flew backwards, off his ball and landing on the ground as his ball bounced back towards him. Sitting up to a seated position on the ground, Anatoli rubbed his stomach in pain as he looked at Bacchus, the Quatro Cerberus wizard taking a large swig once more of his liquor filled gourd.

"Woo!" Bacchus exclaimed happily. "Nothing better than a good fight and good booze!" He said as he put his gourd away and regained his combat stance.

"Neat technique... Ow..." Anatoli said as he stood back to his feet and placing his hand on his ball to keep it from getting away from him.

"I'm a master of a fight style called the "Drunken Chop Hanging-Fist."' Bacchus said as he watched Anatoli stand on his ball again.

_"Son of a bitch... I might not be able to beat this guy... Unless..."_ Anatoli thought as he sat cross legged on his ball.

Meanwhile, in the woods outside the town of Hemlock, Bernard had Baurs and Corvus out as they attempted to fight Risley as he hung back with Tavio.

"Take this, "tubby!"' Corvus screamed as he fired a series of lightning bolts downward towards Risley.

"Don't think so, "birdy!" Gravity Change!" Risley exclaimed as her body glowed as the attack Corvus launched had missed as her body begun to shift.

Originally huge in frame, Risley had now suddenly slimmed down considerably in size and shape as she now was sporting a more physically attractive form as the lightning bolts continued to miss her.

"Whoa! So hot!" Corvus said with a lustful expression as the crow noticed her slim figure as Bernard noticed his lecherous behavior.

"Is now the time to be acting like a pervert?! And she called you a "bird" remember?!" Bernard screamed as Corvus shook his head in realization.

"Oh yeah! I'm not a bird, you dang fatso!" Corvus shouted as Risley looked up at him.

"How about you meet me down here then and we can talk about it! Gravity Change!" Risley said as she put her hand up as Corvus suddenly felt heavier to the point of not being able to fly anymore.

Plummeting to the ground at an incredible speed, Corvus impacted hard onto the ground as the effects of Risley gravity altering magic proceeded to cause the crow Celestial Spirit to be unable to even lift his wings as he was laying on the ground.

"Skraw!" Corvus exclaimed in pain as he couldn't lift his body up

"Grrr… Baurs!" Bernard shouted.

As she noticed Bernards command, Risley looked around for the creature he was commanding as, from underneath her feet, she suddenly felt the earth begin to crack as Baurs jumped up from underground, headbutting Risley into the air and into a nearby tree where she landed on a branch.

"Dang... Good shot right there..." Risley said in her slim form as she clutched her ribcage as Baurs proceeded to dig herself back into the ground. "An electric bird and a big ol' lizard with Earth Magic powers. What're you? Some kind of animal tamer?" She asked as she looked down at Bernard.

"As a matter of fact, I almost am!" Bernard shouted upward. "My guild is Psycho Circus and we're filled with performers!" He explained loudly.

"Well, Mermaid Heel is also has an oceanside seafood restaurant! All I wanted was to bring some of those desserts from that bakery to the shop and see if anyone likes them for us to sell!" Risley explained.

"You could have explained that before we started fighting! Baurs, shoot her out of the trees!" Bernard said before commanding Baurs once again as she stuck her head out of the ground.

"As you wish." Baurs said before opening her mouth and spitting a torrent of mud at Risley, the female wizard dodging in response out of the trees and back towards the ground.

"Like I told that alcoholic; don't mess with "chubby power!"' The skinny Risley said as she as ran up to Baurs head sticking out of the ground and swung her leg back for a kick, hitting Baurs in her stone face and kicking her out of the ground.

"Uof!" Baurs grunted as she was launched out of the ground and landed on her back.

"That all you got?! Hehe." Risley said in a confident tone as Bernard looked annoyed as he motioned for Corvus and Baurs to return to him, the Celestial Spirit and Earth Elemental following his orders and returning to their original forms as light particles and a stone bracelet, respectively.

"There's more where that came from..." Bernard said. _"Corvus and Baurs might be in trouble but I still have Vulp and Formosa to- huh?!" _He thought until he noticed Tavio rush at her on his hindlegs.

"Time I showed you all real strength!" Tavio said with his deep voice as he ran up to Risley to punch her.

Risley, however, proceeded to put her leg up slightly and extended her foot out somewhat, causing Tavio to run into it and smack against her foot. Falling backwards, the Exceed stood back up to his feet and rushed over to her other leg and begun to punch it with his tiny paws.

"Take that! And that!" Tavio said with his deep voice as he ineffectively punched at Risley, to her confusion.

"This supposed to hurt? Because if anything, it's just kinda ticklish." Risley stated plainly as Bernard looked on with annoyance.

"Tavio, what're you doing?!" Bernard exclaimed. "Bite her or use your roar or something!" He requested as the cat looked at him defiantly.

"Shut up, "Ber-nerd!" I do what I want- whoa!" Tavio replied back before Risley proceeded to pick up the tiger-like Exceed by the back of his tank top.

"I know a girl who would love to meet you. She loves little kittens!" Risley said casually as her body proceeded to shift back from her skinny form to her normal chubby state.

"I'm a grown "alpha!" Not some little baby cat!" Tavio said angrily as he flailed around.

_"...I can't use most of the creatures attacks, given her gravity altering magic might be able to stop most of them... But Tavio's sound attacks could work if he'd just shut up and listen..."_ Bernard thought as he looked on, thinking of his next move. "Damn it all, fine. Tavio! Roar!" He commanded as Tavios body started to glow from the Obedience Collar around his waist.

Opening up his mouth, Tavio proceeded to let loose his loud wailing attack, prompting Risley to drop him so she could cover her ears as well as it causing her to go flying backwards from the force of the soundwaves. Stopping, Tavio then proceeded to stand back up on his feet, focusing his attention towards Bernard.

"What was that?! I could've handled it!" Tavio said loudly.

"Didn't look like it to me!" Bernard said as he walked over and grabbed the cat by the back of his neck, pulling him up to eye level.

"Shut up nerd! Like I need the guy who can't fight on his own to tell me what to do!" Tavio said, continuing to display an uncooperative attitude.

"That collar you're wearing like a belt says otherwise!" Bernard shouted as he pointed at the Obedience Collar with his free hand.

"You're the one making my life problematic! What gives you the right to boss me around?!" Tavio responded.

"Because you're an obnoxious little punk who stole a bunch of stuff and I own you as long as you continue to act like a jackass!" Bernard screamed as Risley just looked at the two argue, unsure of what to make the situation.

"You boys got some major issues." Risley said plainly as the beanie sporting wizard and tiger-furred Exceed turned towards the dark skinned fat woman.

'"Be quiet!"' Bernard and Tavio said in unison before they went back to arguing.

"I don't know what's more annoying! The fact I can't carry you around in a container to keep you from stirring up trouble or the fact you cause problems without even trying!" Bernard exclaimed angrily.

"I'm not some piece of fashion like your dumb rock bracelet or that dumb useless crystal embroidered in your chest!" Tavio shouted as Bernards eye twitched as he dropped Tavio on the ground and pulled his shirt down slightly to reveal his pacemaker.

"This is not an accessory! Its to keep me alive!" Bernard shouted loudly as Risley noticed the Lacrima sticking out from where his heart is.

"Hey what's that?" Risley said as her words caught Bernards attention as Tavio looked at Bernard with confusion.

"It's a pacemaker Lacrima, it keeps me alive because I have a condition." Bernard said bluntly and agitated.

"Oh... Oh wow..." Risley said as her face started to get slightly embarrassed. "I had no idea you had an issue like that." She said as she begun to rub the back of her head.

"Huh?" Bernard muttered in confusion.

"Not gonna lie, I probably wasn't going to fight you if I had known you had a handicap." Risley said with an honest tone.

"Great, another person pitying me for my condition, look just shove it..." Bernard said with aggravation in his tone as he looked at Risley. "I have a lot on my plate in my life right now and frankly, going to Kiernan's is one of the saving graces of my issues so this fight is to keep the problems to a minimum." He explained.

"Like I said earlier, all I wanted was to get some snacks for Mermaid Heels restaurant. Next thing I knew, that pig, Bacchus, started to cause a ruckus with me." Risley explained.

"All I'm trying to do is stop my town from getting ruined!" Bernard said, revealing his motivation.

"I wasn't trying to mess up the town! Whatcha think I am? Some kind of public nuisance!" Risley exclaimed as Bernard noted her serious tone. "That's why I chose for us to fight over here in these woods in the first place." She said as Bernard scratched his head.

"...Well... I appreciate that actually..." Bernard said as he continued to scratch his head.

"Hey, is the fighting over? Lame!" Tavio said with his usual "tough guy" attitude.

"Tavio, shut your mouth." Bernard commanded as Tavio proceeded to close his mouth and was unable to open it as he begun to claw at his face in an effort to speak. "Well since I guess we're sorta burying the hatchet, I guess I'll say sorry for all the fat comments." He said in an apologetic tone.

"Hahaha! No skin off my nose, being called "obese" never bothered me any." Risley said with a jovial tone.

"Thankfully we took the fight out here to the woods to avoid any property damage. Hopefully Anatoli and that drunk aren't fighting in town so- huh?!" Bernard said before he suddenly heard an explosive noise and people screaming as he, Tavio and Risley turned their heads in the direction of the town.

"The hell was that?!" Risley said loudly.

"Something that might make the Magic Council arrive in town!" Bernard said loudly as he and Risley made dreadful expressions of worry. "We gotta stop them before they wreck the place!" He exclaimed towards Risley as she and Bernard ran out of the woods as Tavio was still standing around and trying to free his mouth.

"Mrpgh fco pah- ahh! Sweet relief!" Tavio said as he finally managed to open his mouth to speak.

"Tavio! Fly over here now!" Bernard screamed as Tavios body glowed and his wings came out, causing his body to follow behind the pair.

"Ugh! Do I seriously need to fly?!" Tavio complained as the three of them ran back into Hemlock.

* * *

**Really am hoping no one snitched to the Magic Council, I don't need no authorities snooping around Hemlock where I- nevermind, back to narrating! So!... I got nothing, till next time I guess :T**

**Authors Note: (I couldn't think of an ending narration, I was in a bit of a rush to write this chapter which I managed in a single night) **


	57. Chapter 56

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hemlock, 1:14 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

"Haaa!" Bacchus shouted as he ran up towards Anatoli as he sat on his ball and swung his right arm, attempting to backhand the chimp-like wizard.

Bending backwards over his ball, Anatoli ducked away from the strike as he jumped over his ball and landed on his feet. Swatting away the ball with his hands, Bacchus proceeded to rush forward towards Anatoli to continue his attack.

"Wah! Guh!- blurgh!" Anatoli exclaimed as he twisted and weaved away from Bacchus' attacks until the alcoholic wizard lifted his leg and thrusted his foot into Anatolis chest, kicking him and sending him flying into the wall of a nearby business.

Smashing through the wall of a store called "Horatio's Round Rugs," Anatoli fell on top of a pile of floor mats as a bunch more that were rolled up fell off shelving racks on top of his downed state.

"Ahh! Ploofsa- Ah..." Anatoli mumbled as he pushed off the rugs on top of him as a small man with a moustache and an apron walked up to him.

"The hell are you doing?!" The small man said.

"Nice rugs!" Anatoli exclaimed as he got up and ran away through the shop as Bacchus ran through the hole he made.

"My store!" The small man complained as Bacchus pushed him to the side to chase Anatoli out into the street.

_"Damn it! This is getting too rough!"_ Anatoli thought as he was in the middle of the road, looking around for a place to go as Bacchus walked out the front door of the rug shop.

"Ready to call it a loss, "chimpy?"' Bacchus said with a grin as he grabbed his gourd off his belt.

"All of this over rum cake?!" Anatoli said loudly as he looked at the wizard that reeked of booze.

"Yeah pretty much." Bacchus said casually as he lifted his gourd and attempted to bring it towards his mouth.

With a twitch in his eye, Anatoli lifted his hand up slightly as a small gust of wind begun to form in his hands and blasted it towards Bacchus. Slapping the gourd out of his hand, it fell to the ground and broke on impact with the concrete, Bacchus appalled by the action of the Psycho Circus wizard.

"Hey! What the- you bastard!" Bacchus said with a twitch in his face and a look of anger forming.

"Huh, I must be getting better at that. Still prefer to sit on my ball as I do it but- whoa!" Anatoli said casually as he looked at his hands but was cut off by the sight of Bacchus running up towards him with a cocked back fist.

Bending forward to duck the strike, Bacchus responded back by raising his knee and hitting Anatoli in the face, causing him to fly up into the air and land on his back on the ground with a thud.

"Ugh!- wah!" Anatoli exclaimed as he hit the ground and then looked upward as Bacchus jumped in the air, heading straight for him for a stomp.

Rolling on the floor to get away from getting hit, Anatoli dodged as Bacchus smashed his foot through the ground and left a large crack in the ground as Anatoli looked up at the alcoholic wizard who was displaying a face of unbridled rage.

"No one messes with my drinking!" Bacchus screamed angrily as he ran at Anatoli who had rushed to his feet and begun to run away again.

_"Okay! Maybe it wasn't a good idea to wildly attack like that!" _Anatoli thought fearfully as he ran away on foot down the street from the raging alcoholic. _"Really hoping he's a slow wino- nope! He's fast!" _He thought as he looked back and noticed how quickly Bacchus caught up to him.

Grabbing him by the back of the bandanna around Anatolis neck, Bacchus picked up Anatoli and threw him at full force though a glass window of another town business called "Cory's Candy Emporium," smashing through a display of sweets in the store. Attempting to pick himself up, Anatoli's head was spinning as his mouth was filled with jawbreakers and chocolates as he clutched at his head to stop his disorientated state.

"Blegh!" Anatoli exclaimed as he spat out the candy from his mouth as he tried to get back to a standing position. _"Damn it, I'm completely useless right now without my damn ball." _He thought as he looked down at one of the jawbreakers rolling on the floor as he looked back and noticed Bacchus jumped through the shattered window to continue the fight.

"Come on, you monkey! I'm about to go wild on your obnoxious butt!" Bacchus said angrily as he slowly walked towards Anatoli.

Looking around at the floor for something to use, Anatoli shifted his eyes over and noticed a display with boxes of chocolates with one of them labeled "Whiskey Bon-Bons," causing him to quickly formed an idea. Grabbing the box of chocolates, Anatoli quickly opened them up and threw them at Bacchus, hitting him in the face.

"What the- oh hey! These smell great!" Bacchus said as he grabbed the box of chocolates off his face and smelled the enticing aroma of booze on the confectionaries.

As Bacchus begun to devour the alcohol scented treats, Anatoli sneaked out of the building as he ran outside.

"Got a few seconds, need to find my ball!" Anatoli said to himself as he looked around for his ball. Rushing up the road, Anatoli continued to search until he finally found his ball, bouncing down a sidewalk with the wind pushing it. "There you are!" He exclaimed happily as he ran over to his large yellow googly-eyed ball and proceeded to sit down on it.

"Burp!" A familiar voice belched as Anatoli turned around while sitting on his ball as looked over at Bacchus throwing away the box of candy as he approached the chimp-like Psycho Circus wizard. "Just what the doctor ordered!" The alcoholic wizard exclaimed as he wiped his mouth and patted his chest.

"You outta cut back..." Anatoli said with a furrowed brow. "Since the moment I met you, all I smelled was a mix of rum, whiskey and wine." He stated.

"And a little bit of gin. Hehehe." Bacchus said with a grin on his face to Anatolis chagrin.

"How the hell can you mix that much together and still be awake?!" Anatoli asked out of genuine curiosity.

"Years and years of practice." Bacchus said casually as he cracked his neck.

"I've been trying to chug booze for a long time and I can barely retain a decent number of bottles." Anatoli said, the two almost beginning to talk with no confrontational intent.

"Ah you see, that's the reason why you aren't getting any traction with your drinking." Bacchus said as Anatoli looked at him. "You shouldn't try to chug, you should start with proper sipping of the alcohol. Once you build a taste for the drink, you can eventually consume a larger quantity. I can chug whole barrels by this point." He continued as Anatolis eyes widened.

'"Whole barrels?!" How the hell is that possible!?" Anatoli said surprised.

"Heck yeah! And like I said, practice! Haha!" Bacchus said with a grin as the two continued to talk.

Meanwhile, away from where the two shirtless men were fighting eachother, Camilla was searching around town for Bernard and Risley, wondering where they were.

_"Damn it! Where are the heck is he?!" _Camilla thought as she continued to look for any signs of her boyfriend causing trouble. _"I don't know what to do now... Stop Anatoli and that drunk from wrecking the town or stopping Bernard and that fat woman from breaking down another portion of the city!" _She thought as she struggled with what to do as she reached the edge of town.

Out of the corner of her eye, Camilla noticed the familiar sight of Bernard as he walked into toward with Corvus flying next to him with Risley and Tavio walking beside him.

"The big special right now at Mermaid Heel is a tropical giant rainbow fish. Took hours of researching sea fish from this local aquarium to see what kinds of fish are safe to eat but it worked out for us." Risley said as she and Bernard walked and talked.

"The hell kinds of portions do you guys serve?" Bernard asked out of curiosity.

"Lotta people go home happy with leftovers, then we charge for the boxes! Hehehe!" Risley said casually with a chuckle as Bernard and Corvus' eyes widened.

'"That's so scummy!"' Bernard and Corvus said, simultaneously disturbed as they noticed the relatively scam-like business practice of Mermaid Heels restaurant.

"Matter of opinion. People don't mind considering how much food we cook up. Gotta friend of mine named Beth, she uses her Vegetable Magic to create some of the best quality veggies to go as sides." Risley explained.

"All this food talk is making me hungry." Corvus said.

"Why is it always "food, food, food" with you guys?" Tavio said annoyed as everyone looked towards the Exceed.

'"Because we like food!"' Bernard, Corvus and Risley said in tandem.

"Actually wait... Shouldn't we be doing something important?" Corvus said as the others looked at the crow.

"Huh?" Risley mumbled.

"...Not sure, I've been forgetting a lot lately to be honest." Bernard said as he took his beanie off and scratched his head.

As they continued to walk and talk, unbeknownst to Bernard, Camilla approached with a displeased look in her eyes as she walked up to him and swung her open hand into her boyfriends face, knocking him to the ground.

"Ow! Wha- oh?!" Bernard said in pain before looked up from the ground and noticing Camillas angry face. "Uh!? Hey, Camilla! Fancy meeting you here!" He said fearfully from the ground as Camilla glared at him before turning towards Risley.

_"Whoa! That's some Kagura level staring down right there!" _Risley thought with a chill down her spine, fearful of the anger radiating off Camilla.

"All of this over some dumb cake?! That's it, no more Kiernan's!" Camilla shouted, barking an order towards her boyfriend as he made a distraught expression as he twisted around to being on all fours.

"What?! Come on, Kiernan's Pastries is one of the few absolute joys in my- bleurgh!" Bernard explained until Camilla struck him in the head with a karate chop covered in a barrier, slamming him face first into the ground.

"If you finish that sentence, I'm going to break your face worse than when I found you in Magnolia!" Camilla shouted angrily as she expected Bernards sentence to take an insulting turn.

"...Okay... I'm sorry..." Bernard said with his head still partially in the concrete as Tavio and Corvus snickered a little at his misfortune.

"Hehehe..." Corvus chuckled.

"I'd say that was called for..." Tavio said with a smirk as Camilla turned her head towards the crow and cat.

"...You two want to die?" Camilla said with a harsh glare.

'"N-no ma'am!"' Corvus and Tavio exclaimed in fear as Bernard pulled himself out of the ground.

"Gah!... I think my skull is fractured..." Bernard said as he clutched at his head.

"You want your spine removed as well?!" Camilla exclaimed violently as she loomed over the kneeling Bernard, still cowering from his girlfriends enraged state with her hands glowing from her Barrier Magic.

"Hey!" Risley said, speaking up and catching Camillas attention. "Now look, I know we got off on the wrong foot and started fighting but everything is cool and we're hoping to move past that. It's just been a real crazy day." She explained as Camilla started to dispel her magic, showing signs of calming down.

"And... I found out Risley and her guild owns a seaside restaurant." Bernard said sheepishly as Camilla looked at Risley.

"I can give you both a coupon for a relatively cheap meal, courtesy of Mermaid Heel." Risley said with a bit of sweat dripping down her face, bargaining.

"Be good for a date night..." Bernard said, also with a fearful tone as Camilla breathed a sigh.

"...Fine. Deal." Camilla said as she put her hand on her forehead as Bernard and Risley breathed sighs of relief as Corvus and Tavio looked on. _"I gotta stop being suckered by my love…" _She thought as she shook her head.

"...Talk about lucky..." Corvus whispered.

"I wouldn't have minded seeing "Ber-nerds" spine ripped out. Then maybe I can get this stupid thing off me." Tavio said in his deep voice as he pointed at the Obedience Collar around his waist.

"Still whining huh?" Corvus said with an unimpressed tone.

"Hey! I'm no- I mean, I'm no whiner!" Tavio said with his voice cracking before he suddenly switched back to his deeper tone.

"Yeah you are." Corvus said as he looked at Tavio.

"Why do you even defend the guy? Look at him." Tavio said as he pointed at Bernard who was still trying to calm down Camilla with Risley. "The guy is a weak nerd who can barely run a mile without bending forward for a breather, eats loads of junkfood and still looks scrawny! And I'm supposed to live with fact this guy bosses me around!?" The Exceed said, listing complaints of his owner.

"I probably would've agreed with you when I first met him." Corvus said plainly as he continued to look at Bernard. "I probably wouldn't have let him be my master if I just knew him surface level too." He said.

"Then why do you let him boss you around?" Tavio said.

"You might be failing to see it but under that kids slightly fractured head from the hot brunette slamming it into the ground lies the huge brain of a leader and despite choosing to hide it behind a bunch of grumpiness, he can't seem to help an abnormal habit of his to try and help others, even if it hurts him." Corvus said as Tavio looked at him, slightly confused. "He's a hard worker, almost to his detriment. And he genuinely cares for people even if he doesn't do a good job showing it. Little rough around the edges but he's decent." The crow continued.

"The heck you trying to say?" Tavio asked.

"He's not a bad dude. Just give him a chance. You wanted huge muscles right?." Corvus said with an honest tone before asking Tavio.

"...Hard to do when I have this dumb collar on..." Tavio complained as he looked at the collar around his waist.

"Don't know about you but to me, it looks a bit like one of those weight lifter belts to me..." Corvus said as he looked at Tavio as Tavios eyes widened.

"Hey... Hey yeah! This makes me look like I'm always ready to lift!" Tavio said as he started to acknowledge the way he looked.

"Maybe you can ask for a dumbbell from the kids one friend with the bald head and moustache, could help you out." Corvus said with a smirk.

"...Yeah! That can help me!" Tavio said as he formed thoughts in his head, inspired to create a new exercise regiment to workout with.

_"And now the kid owes me a favor. Hehehe."_ Corvus thought mischievously as he managed to get Tavio to finally cooperate through trickery before glancing over at Bernard, Risley and Camilla.

"Where's Anatoli and Bacchus?" Bernard asked towards Camilla.

"Not sure, I left after their fight started to go all over the place to find you two." Camilla said with folded arms.

"That isn't good. Bacchus is one of the toughest wizards I've ever seen. The man has enough physical strength to cause a tremor and in tight town like this..." Risley explained as Bernard and Camilla looked at eachother with concerned looks.

"Damn it, that's what I forgot! We gotta hurry before they destroy everything! Corvus! Tavio! We're getting a move on!" Bernard exclaimed before shouting an order towards the crow Celestial Sprit and Exceed cat.

"Roger!" Corvus said before turning to Tavio.

"...Yeah, okay." Tavio said as he rubbed the back of his head with his paw.

"Huh? Why're you acting so compliant?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow as Tavio looked away.

"N-nothing..." Tavio said as he walked on foot with Corvus flying up in the air, getting close to Bernard and meeting him at eye level.

"Something happen?" Bernard asked towards Corvus.

"There's a reason we're a team kid. I just picked up your slack." Corvus said a smirk before sticking his tongue out at Bernard, the action confusing and insulting the beanie sporting wizard.

_"The heck is that supposed to mean!?" _Bernard thought with minor aggravation.

"Hey! You guys coming or what?!" Camilla shouted as she, Risley and Tavio were on the move to find Anatoli and Bacchus as Corvus and Bernard quickly rushed to catch up.

Walking through the town, the group noticed a series of broken windows and puffs of smoke coming from some of the businesses. Looking over the damage, the group continued to try and look for the pair of dueling wizards.

"Damn it, the towns already pretty wrecked..." Camilla said as she looked at the rubble on the ground.

"Corvus, Tavio. I want you guys to fly upwards and look for Anatoli and Bacchus. It shouldn't be too hard to see two relatively shirtless guys with one sitting on a ball..." Bernard said as he rubbed his forehead as Tavio released his wings as he and Corvus flew upward into the air to look around.

"Hopefully they don't take too long..." Risley said.

"Same..." Camilla said. "I can only imagine what kind of destruction those two are causing.

"Hey!" Tavio exclaimed as the trio of wizards looked up.

"You find them?!" Bernard questioned with a shout.

"Yeah, we did but..." Corvus said as he and Tavio flew back to Bernard, Risley and Camilla.

'"But?"' Camilla said with a raised brow.

"Follow us..." Tavio said as he and the crow looked at eachother with disturbed looks.

Trailing behind the Celestial Spirit and Exceed, the trio of wizards turned a street corner to see an extremely peculiar sight that shocked the trio of wizards. Laying around on the ground and sitting with their backs against the large googly-eyed ball, Anatoli and Bacchus were chugging copious amounts of booze from stray liquor bottles that were strung around the ground.

"Bah!" Anatoli sighed as he took the bottle out of his mouth. "Like that?" He asked of Bacchus as he stopped drinking as well.

"That's right dude! Slow and steady then you can start knocking it back full swing!" Bacchus said as he picked up another bottle and began to drink it.

"Man, we gotta hit up some of the bars in Oshibana! I've heard the bars there got some mad amounts of- blurgh!" Anatoli said until the sudden feeling a foot kicking him in the face and knocking him backwards against the wall of a building cut him off.

"Huh?- blarguh!" Bacchus muttered until a similar feeling of a kick to his head sent him back towards a wall as well as he and Anatoli left indents in the bricks.

Standing over the two conked out drunks was Camilla and Risley who had both kicked Anatoli and Bacchus in their skulls, respectively. Behind the two women was Bernard, Corvus and Tavio who were looking at the pair of alcoholics with exasperated expressions.

"You guys wreck the town and then just sit around drinking like a pair of morons!?" Camilla exclaimed angrily.

"The hell is wrong with you two?!" Risley complained.

"Looks like they're having fun..." Corvus said as Tavio and Bernard nodded in agreement.

"Hey! We didn't do that much damage!" Anatoli said as he and Bacchus pulled themselves out of the wall. After making his defensive statement, Camilla pointed down the road and made the two drunk wizards notice the damage they caused with their brawling.

"Oh... Well that's a hell of a mess..." Bacchus said casually as he attempted to take another swig of one of the bottles on the ground.

Noticing him attempting to drink again, Risley swung her chubby leg against Bacchus' hand and kicked the bottle out of his clutches.

"Hey?!" Bacchus complained.

'"Hey" nothing!" Camilla shouted as her hands started to glow from her magic. "Hemlocks borderline destroyed because of you two. And all of this over some rum cake?!" She exclaimed in a criticizing tone.

"...To be fair, it's a Kiernan's Pastries product, it's a pretty big- I'll shut up now..." Bernard said, playing devil's advocate until Camilla turned her attention back towards him and caused him to stop talking.

"Look, we already stopped fighting, everything's cool." Anatoli said as he stood up with Bacchus following suit.

"Yeah, I got a new drinking buddy out of it so it's all copacetic!" Bacchus said as he put his arm around Anatolis shoulder as they both picked up some of the bottles off the floor.

"Yeah, I guess it's fair things aren't so bad now." Risley said as she rubbed the back of her neck as Camilla turned around and looked at her and Bernard.

"Seriously, you think people are just gonna excuse the fact there's this much damage!?" Camilla angrily questioned as she pointed at the destroyed parts of the town once again.

"Well... Isn't it important that guilds establish decent relationships with other guilds? Maybe this can count as a "budding relationship?"' Bernard said with a shrug as Camilla looked at Bernard with rage.

"...Your funeral kid." Corvus said as he turned into light particles and went into Bernards pacemaker.

"Nice knowing you..." Tavio said as he casually walked away towards Camilla.

"Okay, sorry. But... Hey, it's looks like this is the worst of it." Bernard said as he looked over at the rubble.

Suddenly, the sound of metallic footsteps begun to be overheard as the wizards begun to start twisting their heads in different directions to see what was making that noise.

"...Oh no..." Camilla said as her eyes widened.

"...The Council..." Risley said as sweat dripped down her face.

Emerging from the street corners and coming up the street were several dozens of soldiers dressed in large white, purple and blue robes with spears and shields carrying the ankh symbol of the Magic Council. Standing in front of the army was an unusual man with a green frog-like head and dressed in a priestly-outfit of a similar color scheme to the soldiers.

"We are the Magic Council and you are under arrest for property damage through the usage of magic." The green frog man said.

"Uh?!" Bacchus exclaimed in shock.

"Um?!" Risley mumbled in surprise.

"Huh?!" Anatoli yelped in fear.

"Camilla, a little help would be- nice?!" Bernard said until he turned around and noticed his girlfriend wasn't among the group anymore. Looking around in an effort to find her, the soldiers suddenly moved forward and pointed their spears towards the wizards as they all put their hands up, Bacchus and Anatoli dropping the liquor bottles on the ground.

Hidden behind a corner from the mass of people was Camilla, back against the wall and her hand over Tavios mouth to prevent the exercise obsessed tiger-furred cat from making any comments as he flailed about in her grasp.

"Quiet, you stinky feline..." Camilla quietly whispered as she turned her head back and looked at the group of wizards as they had their hands up. _"Sorry Bernard but I'm not going to Era over you acting like a dumbass, you and Anatoli are on your own this time..." _She thought with a bittersweet attitude over letting her boyfriend get arrested as punishment for his actions.

_"This day really does suck!"_ Bernard thought with sadness as a spear was meter inches from his nose.

* * *

**Man, remember how this day start with just the guy getting suffocated by boobs and now he is getting arrested? Oh yeah, this has been only one day... Time flies when you are in a world filled with magical drunks. After ending their fight, Bernard and Risley managed to calm down Camilla and Corvus even got Tavio to consider not treating Bernard with respect. While Anatoli and Bacchus got plastered after destroying a good amount of Hemlock, The Magic Council arrived in town and now the quartet of Bernard, Anatoli, Risley and Bacchus have been arrest but now that they are being brought to Era, what's going to happen? Find out next time on Menagerie!**

**Authors Note: (So... I'm going to start this off by saying sorry for how long this was taking to put out. In terms of my personal life, without going into too much detail, this past week was one of the worst experiences of my life and I went through some hard shit but I finally had managed to get around to writing and I want to apologize for taking so long, it's been stressful. I'll see you in the next one.)**


	58. Chapter 57

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Era, 8:56 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

In the town of Era and lying atop a large rocky hill in the center of the town was a large white church-like castle with the symbol for an ankh atop the highest point on the building, the home of the Magic Council of Fiore. Deep within the confines of the building was a prison area used for detaining criminals of a magical nature and within one shared cell was a quartet of familiar faces.

"Heeeyyy!" Bacchus shouted as he clutched at the bars to the cell, a pair of chainless magic cancelling handcuffs attached to both of his wrists. "Which one of you jerks is in charge of food and beverage?! I want a drink!" He complained as he pulled on the bars.

"Yeah! And where is my ball?!" Anatoli exclaimed, also sporting chainless cuffs as he also clutched at the bars.

Suddenly, the sound of metal footsteps could be heard as a Magic Council guard arrived and confronted the two wizards.

"For the last time! It's way past the point of giving you guys any meals or drinks until tomorrow morning and we will not be giving out any alcohol!" The guard said in a stern tone.

"Come on! At least give us some wine or something!?" Bacchus whined.

"And like I said already... No!" The guard stated.

"Where's my ball!?" Anatoli continued to ask.

"Heck if I know now shut up!" The guard angrily stated before walking away.

"Hey! Get back here! Where's my ball!?" Anatoli shouted as he started to violently pull on the bars.

"At least some whiskey or a barrel of rum or something! Come on!" Bacchus screamed as he started pulling on the bars as well.

Walking up behind the pair, Risley lifted her cuffed arms up and punched the pair of borderline shirtless wizards in the back to get them to stop throwing tantrums.

"Will both of you stop acting like babies?! It's not helping our case!" Risley said as Anatoli and Bacchus clutched at their backsides in pain.

"Gah! That freakin' hurt!" Anatoli said as he continued to rub his back.

"Good! You guys put us all in this mess!" Risley said.

"Don't you think you're some kind of angel, "tubby." You tried to start the fight with me in the first place!" Bacchus retorted.

"And for the billionth time, I didn't cut the line!" Risley exclaimed loudly in frustration.

"You guys can keep bitching about the stupid rum cake all you want! All I want is my damn ball!" Anatoli angrily said.

"Why do you need that stupid rubber thing?" Risley said as she tried to change the subject.

"Because I like my ball and it helps me channel my magic." Anatoli said with a frustrated tone.

"Didn't need it when you broke my booze gourd..." Bacchus said with folded arms as he glanced at Anatoli.

"I already apologized for that already dude!" Anatoli remarked.

"Considering you lost it while you fought me, you got pretty useless without it." Bacchus said as he walked away from Anatoli and Risley and sat down on the bench in the prison cell. "Guuuhh… I want some gin or something..." He complained as he clutched at his stomach and laid down on the bench.

"...Too much liquor, not enough cares..." Risley said as she shook her head.

"No kidding... Speaking of a lack of cares." Anatoli said before pointing over to a corner of the room as Risley turned her head.

Laying flat on the floor was Bernard, asleep as he scratched at his belly in a content manner and using his beanie as a cushion for the back of his head with a pair of regular chained cuffs around his wrists.

"How is he able to sleep so calmly on the floor like that?" Risley questioned as she looked at Anatoli.

"Guy used to sleep on the floor of a room tinier than this cell." Anatoli said.

"Also, why the heck does he not have to wear the anti-magic cuffs?" Bacchus said as he sat back up and pointed at the sleeping Bernard.

"Bernies got a heart problem and a Lacrima pacemaker in his chest to keep himself from having an attack or something. They give him anti-magic cuffs, he might actually die." Anatoli said as he scratched the back of his head before sitting down on the floor with Risley following suit. "At least he can sleep, the lucky douchebag." He said casually as Bernards eyes suddenly opened.

"Did you just call me a "douchebag?!"' Bernard said as he quickly jumped up to a seated position to the surprise of everyone.

"Pffff! You seriously just woke up from an insult?! Hahaha!" Bacchus laughed as he watched Bernard get angry.

"Shut up you boozehound!" Bernard said as he pointed at the alcoholic martial artist.

"Welcome back to the waking world, "sleeping beauty."' Risley said with a smirk as she looked at Bernards face.

"Glad you can join us." Anatoli said, also smirking mischievously as Bernard rolled his eyes.

"First time sleeping on the floor in a good while. Felt pretty nostalgic and could actually sleep without needing to feel up-" Bernard said until he cut himself off before realizing what he as gonna say.

"Huh?" Bacchus muttered.

'"Feel up?"' Risley said with a raised eyebrow as Anatoli was attempting to stifle a laugh.

_"...Maybe I should shut up about my normal sleeping arrangements..."_ Bernard thought as he bit his lip. "Ummm... Forget about it, what's going on?" He questioned.

"Bacchus can't stop complaining about the lack of drinks, Anatoli won't stop being worried about his ball and you were asleep ever since we got placed in the cells." Risley explained.

"Still want my damn ball..." Anatoli mumbled in aggravation.

"I was sleeping because I was hoping this was some nightmare but it turns out it isn't." Bernard said as he sat cross-legged.

"Oh! Here's an idea; why don't you call out one of your pets to bust us out?" Anatoli said as everyone looked at him.

"Sounds good but then we'd be dragging our guild through the mud in terms of rep if we busted out of the Magic Councils dungeon..." Bernard said. "Besides, I gave them Baurs in her bracelet form and told Corvus and Vulp to stay inside of me. As for Tavio, I have no idea where the hell he went..." He continued.

"Blah blah blah..." Bacchus said as he laid back down on the bench in the cell. "All we gotta do is kill some time in this cell and then we can get back on with our lives." He said casually.

"Not so fast, you think staying in a Magic Council dungeon isn't going to affect anybody? All our guilds have reputations to uphold and if we come out of here with the damage we caused, people are going to be looking at our guilds differently." Risley explained.

"We can't all be Fairy Tail." Anatoli said with his arms folded. "Those guys destroy property and get people hurt but get passes because they stopped "world destroying threats from dark wizards."' He said as he did air quotes with his hands.

"...You make it sound like that isn't a big deal?" Risley questioned.

"Kinda gotta agree with Anatoli. Those guys overshadow a lot of other guilds because of them inserting themselves into everything." Bernard said as he scratched his face.

"Can't blame the guys for having better timing than the rest of us." Risley said as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Wish I was hanging with that one chick though from Fairy Tail, Cana. That's a woman who can hold back her liquor... Hehe." Bacchus said as he looked at the ceiling as he chuckled about a specific member of Fairy Tail.

"Nothing but booze with you, isn't it?" Bernard said as he shook his head while looking at Bacchus.

"Were you expecting anything else?" Risley said.

As they continued to chat in their cells, in one corner of the hallway, the guards from the Magic Council were chatting as they looked downward and overheard the conversation.

"Seriously wish they could be quiet." One guard said as he looked at a newspaper as he leaned against a wall.

"They sure do bring up a point about Fairy Tail. Makes you almost feel sorry for other guilds in Fiore." The other guard said.

"Who cares?" The guard reading a newspaper said. "When these idiots get into trouble for their stupid magic garbage, it's our job to clean it up." He continued.

"True... Oh hey get this, one of the frog men sent in a memo up the chain over this stuff to decide the funds put towards repairing that town." The guard said.

"To the royal family?" The guard reading the paper said as he put the paper down. "Why?" He questioned.

"Yeah and get this; hours after the royal family got it, they sent a letter back to the Council and told them that the princess and general Arcadios are coming here tomorrow morning." The guard said to the surprise of the other.

"What?! Why?!" The other guard said.

"I don't know but I heard it has something to do with the beanie wearing guy with the bad heart." The guard said as he pointed towards the cell.

"Maybe they're going to punish him specifically, who knows?" The guard said as he went back to reading his paper.

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Era, 9:14 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

The next day, while still trapped in their shared cell, Bernard sat against the wall as Risley, Bacchus and Anatoli were asleep on the ground. While the others were still snoring, Bernard was picking at a wall with his fingers, bored.

_"Moments like this makes me wish I had something to throw against the wall..." _Bernard thought as he scratched at the wall before looking upward towards his beanie and took it off his head, staring at it in his hands. "Nah..." He mumbled as he put it back on his head as he begun to pace around the cell as the others were still sleeping.

As he continued to walk back and forth in boredom, Bernard overheard metallic footsteps as a guard had arrived at the groups cell, catching his attention as he turned towards the guard.

"Breakfast time?" Bernard questioned.

"No, you have a guest who wants to see you. But for whatever reason, I'm not sure as to why..." The guard said as he unlocked the doors to the cell as Bernard raised an eyebrow.

"For me?" Bernard asked as the guard motioned for Bernard to follow him.

Leaving the dungeon area of the Magic Councils building, Bernard followed behind a set of guards through the hallways of the castle, hands still cuffed in chains and shackles to prevent him from making any unnecessary actions while trying to keep up with the guards.

"May I ask? Who's wanting to see me?" Bernard asked as he walked behind the guards.

"You'll see soon enough." One of the guards said as they arrived at a pair of double doors with two more guards standing at the sides of them. "They're in here." The guard said as he turned to the confused Bernard before the other guard unlocked the door. "We've brought him!" The same guard said loudly for the person on the other side.

"Good. Send him in." Said a male voice that Bernard could faintly hear that sounded slightly familiar.

_"Wait... I know that voice from __somewhere..."_ Bernard thought as one of the guards pushed Bernard to move forward through the doorway.

Inside a room that had a coffee table, a pair of sofas, large drapes over the windows and a trio of tea cups set on the table were a pair of familiar faces to Bernard. Sitting on one of the couches was a young woman with green hair tied back in a ponytail with a gold and red headdress on her head, sporting a green and white dress with matching leggings and boots and long green cape draped over her shoulders. Standing next to her was a tall man with a large spikey afro of black hair on his head and dressed in a large set of gray armor with a black cape,

"...Princess Hisui? General Arcadios?" Bernard said with surprise as he looked at the pair as they turned towards Bernard with eyes full of seriousness.

"Thank you for coming, Mr. O'Halloran..." Princess Hisui said before turning her attention towards the guards. "Please, uncuff him and then wait outside the door." She ordered as one of the guards nodded and then removed Bernards cuffs from his wrists.

"Have a seat." Arcadios said as he motioned for Bernard to sit down as the guards closed the doors behind him. Walking over to the couch, Bernard sat down as he looked at Hisui and Arcadios.

_"...Okay, this is serious... They look like they are judging me..."_ Bernard said as he darted his eyes back and forth between the members of the royal family as Hisui sipped her tea and Arcadios stood around, looking at Bernard as he continued to sit nervously. "...Well... Hello? How have you guys been?" He asked awkwardly.

"I believe you should be answering our questions first, Mr. O'Halloran." Arcadios said in a serious tone as Bernard bit his lip.

"...Yeah... I kinda figured this is why I was brought in..." Bernard said in a low tone.

"Explain..." Hisui said with her eyes still closed as she put her tea cup down on the table.

'"...Explain" what?" Bernard questioned, as if to skirt the question.

"Now's not the time for jokes..." Arcadios said with his arms folded.

"...Alright... I'll explain. Risley and Bacchus were in Hemlock yesterday and one of our local bakers was making this new product, cake soaked in rum, and I was in the middle of working at Psycho Circus when I had overheard from my friend Anatoli that there was some fight going on between two wizards." Bernard explained as Hisui and Arcadios continued to listen. "So I arrived and..." He said with some hint of embarrassment.

'"And?"' Arcadios said with a curious tone.

"And I... Kinda... Went past them arguing in front to try and get some cake before them... Anatoli and my one female friend, Camilla, show up and yell at me for not trying to stop the fight and get a snack and... Thinking back on it, yeah it wasn't all that bright on my part." Bernard said, admitting to his screw up. "So Bacchus and Risley come in after they notice me skipping ahead, they challenged me to a fight, I got a little heated, Anatoli joined in and then one thing led to another and we begun to fight..." He continued as they continued to look at him.

"So you actively participated in damaging the town?" Hisui asked as Bernard looked at her with wide eyes.

"No! No, I fought Risley and I actually suggested we fight near the woods so no one could get hurt and property damage... Would be kept to a minimum... And that's where we fought eachother..." Bernard said as he scratched his face in nervousness as Hisui and Arcadios looked at eachother upon hearing his explanation.

"So the entirety of the damage to the town was mostly done by your friend on the ball and the alcoholic, correct?" Arcadios said as he and Hisui looked at Bernard, more curious than before.

"To be completely honest, yeah..." Bernard said.

Upon hearing his words, Hisui proceeded to stand up from the couch and walked over to a corner of the room with Arcadios following her, to the confusion of Bernard as he watched them. Breathing in loudly and heavily, Hisui and Arcadios let loose a suddenly large sigh as they both bent forward, almost in a relieved tone that surprised Bernard as his eyes widened.

_"What the heck was that?..."_ Bernard thought as Arcadios and Hisui both continued to be bending forward in the corner.

"Oh thank goodness!" Hisui said loudly as Arcadios put his hand on her shoulder.

"I thought he had become less sensible now too!" Arcadios exclaimed as Bernard made an insulted expression from overhearing that comment.

"Excuse me?! What the heck was that supposed to mean?! What's with the bending over and sighs of relief?!" Bernard shouted as he stood up from the couch as Hisui and Arcadios proceeded to walk back over and sat down on the sofa opposite of Bernard with more calmer expressions on their faces.

"Apologies for the misdirecting attitudes we gave off, we were just concerned over whether or not you were still thinking with your head." Arcadios said as he scratched his cheek with him and the princess giving slightly embarrassed expressions.

"When we heard yesterday about the fighting that happened in the town you've been living in, we got concerned that the guild you joined might have been mixed up in it and when we heard one of the descriptions of the wizards detained was "a young man in a beanie," we were assuming the worst!" Hisui said with an earnest tone as Bernard looked at the two representatives of the royal kingdom with surprise.

"...The hell is going on here? What's that supposed to mean?" Bernard questioned in shock as he sat back down.

"To put it simply... We thought you might have been more responsible for the property damage but we're happy to see you actually didn't have much involvement in the destruction to the town." Arcadios said in a relieved tone.

_"...Am I losing my mind here?" _Bernard thought with confusion. "Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute... Why do you sound so unbelievably happy about the fact I didn't cause any of the damage?" He questioned.

"Well... That's a bit of a long story." Arcadios said.

"I got time since I'm expected to be in a cell all day." Bernard said with a suspicious look in his eyes as he picked up a cup of tea.

"Where do you think we should start?" Hisui asked as she looked at Arcadios.

"Probably should just drop the "bombshells" soon as we can." Arcadios said to the princess.

_"There's "bombshells" to this story?" _Bernard thought with a troubled expression as he took a sip of the tea cup.

"We've been spying on you." Hisui said as Arcadios nodded.

Upon hearing that, Bernards eyes opened wide and then twisted his head, spatting out the tea from his mouth towards the wall in shock.

"...You've been spying on me..." Bernard said quietly after he wiped his mouth of tea.

"Within good reason." Arcadios said as he put his hand up as Bernard smiled while looking at them.

"..."Good reason," yeah, that's- the hell kind of "good reason" could there possibly be?!" Bernard said while still smiling until suddenly contorting his face into an enraged expression as he stood up and shouted at them.

_"Ahhh... There's that "Burning Bernie" thing we heard about..."_ Hisui thought as the two of them backed up slightly from Bernards overreaction.

"Calm down, Mr. O'Halloran. There's no need to be so angry, it's not like we invaded your privacy." Arcadios said as he put his hands on Bernards shoulders to get him to stop raging.

'"Spying" is an "invasion of privacy!" And I'm expected not to be pissed off?!" Bernard said as he flailed his arms.

"Please, just let us explain." Hisui said as she put her hands up as Bernard just shook his head and sat back down as Arcadios sat next to Hisui. "Every now and again, we sent a person from the Rune Knights in disguise to attend the Psycho Circus show and see how things were doing around the town." She explained.

"You sent a spy during my guilds- wait, did they pay for their tickets?!" Bernard said until he suddenly got distracted.

"Yes, they paid." Arcadios said as Bernard breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh thank goodness, last thing I need is nobody pay- forget it! We're getting off topic!" Bernard said until he suddenly shifted back to the topic about the spying. "What's the point of you guys doing that?!" He shouted.

"We wanted to keep track of your progress." Arcadios said as Hisui nodded in response.

"What the- why? What's there to keep track of?!" Bernard exclaimed.

"The Magic Council keeps track of records of events pertaining to all of the wizards associated with the sanctioned guilds in Fiore. After you rejoined the guild that your father runs, we became interested in seeing how you were gonna do since we've had a number of... "Interesting" things happen pertaining to the guilds." Hisui explained as Bernard looked at them.

"Fairy Tail?" Bernard asked as Arcadios and Hisui made troubled expressions.

'"Yes..."' Arcadios and Hisui said in unison as they shook their heads.

"We're forever grateful for the help they've done for Fiore and we do not hate them... But..." Hisui said until Arcadios spoke up.

"They destroy too much property! There is no desire to accept responsibility for their actions! And they kept gaining power to the point where even the Magic Council couldn't contain them!" Arcadios said as he complained while putting his hands on his face.

"...Okay, I'm already aware of the Fairy Tail guilds issues but it's that much of a problem for you guys?" Bernard said with surprise and confusion over their reaction to talking about the Fairy Tail guild. _"Things just got kinda sad for the country I live in..."_ He thought with minorly depressing concerns.

"Let me give you a bit of perspective..." Arcadios said as he took his hands off his face and grabbed a napkin on the table and begun to write on it with a pen. "This is the amount of money it's going to take to fix Hemlock..." He said as he showed Bernard a rather large number.

"That's... A lot..." Bernard said as he looked at the number of Jewels it would take to fix Hemlock.

"...You think that's a lot?" Arcadios said with a serious tone. "I want you to stick a good four or five zeros to that number and then you're looking at the number it would take to fix a few of Fairy Tails property damages violations... From a few months of time..." He said as Bernard begun to cough aggressively.

"Gah! Plugh! Guhhh! What?!" Bernard grunted until he spoke. "How has this kingdom not gone backrupt?!" He asked with genuine concern.

"Not something we are willing to talk about currently... Please... Don't ask..." Hisui said with serious eyes.

"Fine, I won't ask... But I'm still failing to see how this pertains to me?" Bernard said.

"Favoritism..." Arcadios said as Bernard looked at him with concerned eyes.

"...Wait what?" Bernard said surprised.

"To be completely honest... We've had one experience working with you to stop a Dragon Slayer and since then, through the Council; you've stopped a giant turtle monster that's only damaged a small island at the end of a lake, destroyed a dark guild from nearly killing a baby with no damage to the environment and then brought down a serious ghost threat in one of Fiores oldest towns." Hisui explained. "It's kind of obvious you seem way more capable of handling yourself and thinking before you act as a wizard than we have ever seen out of the Fairy Tail guild." She continued.

"...Actually about that last one, I did destroy a good amount of an old building." Bernard said as he scratched the back of his neck.

"An "old building" that was gonna get torn down anyway. Whatever damage you did actually helped and didn't cost us a Jewel." Arcadios said as he took a sip from a tea cup.

"Long story short... We consider Fairy Tail as "associates," we're considering you, and by extension your guild, more as "affiliates."' Hisui explained as Arcadios nodded.

"...What's the difference?" Bernard said, failing to completely grasp what they meant.

"Let me put it to you like this; if you or anyone from the Fairy Tail guild were to ask for favors... We're more likely to do your favor first... Solely because we know your guild has someone with working braincells in charge." Arcadios said as Hisui nodded as Bernard just looked at them.

_"...I... I can't believe what I'm hearing right now..."_ Bernard thought as he processed what he was just told. "Wait, hold on... Let me get this straight..." He asked out of serious curiosity. "The strange espionage and this whole meeting thing is solely because you wanted to make sure I stay out of trouble because you wanted to have some relationship with a guild who hasn't been demolishing the kingdom you run?" Bernard said, trying to piece things together.

"And there's the brain at work..." Hisui said as Arcadios nodded.

"That's a portion of the reason, yes. The other part is because you seem to be doing a decent job not acting like an imbecile and we barely see that nowadays from guild wizards." Arcadios said as Bernard made a surprised expression.

"I... Don't know whether to feel flattered or bewildered by that..." Bernard said as he was still struggling to process the princess and head of the Rune Knights statements towards him.

"And as for that "favors" comment... We're serious about that too. If it's within reason, we might be able to help." Arcadios said as he and Hisui looked at him, prompting Bernards surprised face to turn into one of judgmental curiosity.

"...What's the catch?" Bernard replied.

"No "catch."' Hisui said as Bernard still looked at them skeptically.

"...I'm not so sure about that..." Bernard said with his arms folded.

"Alright then, let's count "favors."' Hisui said with a serious look in her eyes. "What do you want?" She asked.

"...Well uhhh..." Bernard said as he dropped his skeptical seriousness. _"Okay, normally I'm more sure about these things but now I'm suddenly supposed to ask for favors from the royal family and see if I can get what I want... This is a first time experience..."_ He thought as he rubbed his chin. "Well... Obvious one out of the way, can you do anything about me and my friends sentences?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"Simple enough. Anything else?" Arcadios said.

"Well... Yeah I did think of something that could be useful..." Bernard said as he bit his lip. _"Not sure if I should be asking for this..."_ He troubledly thought.

"And that is?" Hisui said with interest.

"...I've been wanting to improve the Psycho Circus guildhall because of the state it's in. But we don't have a sizeable enough budget for any kind of decent improvements to make it more presentable to attract any new members or lure in possibly new watchers to promote Ultimate Carnival soooo... Maybe a favor of a... Monetary nature would be nice?" Bernard said embarrassingly as Hisui and Arcadios looked at eachother for a half second.

"Give me that napkin and pen, please." Hisui asked of Arcadios as he handed over his pen and the napkin from the table as Bernard looked on as she scribbled on it. "Here." She said calmly as Bernard looked at the pair with skepticism as he looked down at the napkin.

"Okay so- Hafhgaob!" Bernard said as he opened the napkin to look at the number on the paper and then suddenly shouted gibberish in shock at the number they gave him. "Is-is... Is... Is that... Is that legit?" He said as his face begun to sweat.

"If it's Jewel that isn't going to towards fixing magical property damage, it's Jewel well used..." Hisui said with a serious tone as Arcadios looked on.

"You can tell we're serious now, correct?" Arcadios said with half closed eyes.

"That's... Practically three times as much as I might have needed just to replace some tables and wood pillars..." Bernard said with a nervous tone.

"...Would you like another zero added?" Hisui said as she bent forward as the pair from the royal family noted Bernards incredible overreaction.

"Nope! Nope! Nope! No more! Anymore and I might have a heart attack!" Bernard said as he grabbed at his Lacrima pacemaker out of fear of something happening to affect him internally.

"Keep in mind something though... This isn't a "donation."' Arcadios said with a serious tone as Bernard looked at him. "This is a "loan."' He described.

_"I knew there was a catch..." _Bernard thought. "...If you're expecting me to pay this back with interest, I'm sorry but I can't take this money knowing I'd never be able to clear that debt." He said nervously.

"What? No, that's not what he meant." Hisui said as she noticed his concerns.

"Our spies who were in Hemlock had reported that you recently dealt with some kind of issue at Psycho Circus involving your "joining legitimacy." And for the longest time, the members of the guild have been looking towards you for leadership, correct?" Arcadios questioned.

"...Sorta?" Bernard said as he scratched his neck. _"Wasn't so much of an "issue" other than me being a bit of an asshole..."_ He thought with embarrassment over his past actions.

"Knowing that this money is going towards fixing up your guild, we want you to make a promise to us and the kingdom..." Arcadios said with a serious tone. "Keep your guild on the right track, stay out of trouble and if it means you become the guild master to Psycho Circus, it's even better for us all..." He said, listing his demands.

"I... I'm still on the fence about the whole "guild master" thing, to be honest..." Bernard said earnestly.

"Regardless, people still look to you for guidance, title or no title. All you have to do is "keep the train on track," so to speak. Keep doing what're doing." Hisui said as she took a sip of tea.

"So... What? A gift of money this large is a "good behavior" award?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow. _"Not so sure about how I feel being told to act like "the boss" by the people in charge of the kingdom I live in but okay?"_ He thought troubledly.

"Whatever you want to believe, the offer is up for grabs. But know something else, we did offer you a job with the Hungry Wolf Knights after the Blood Dragon incident, we can arrange for some kind of agreement there as well." Arcadios said as Bernard made a troubled expression.

"...I'm a circus manager, not an executioner so the answers still "no."' Bernard said in an apologetic tone.

"Well alright then." Hisui said as she stood up. "I believe our conversation is done. Until we meet again, at least." She said as Bernard and Arcadios stood up as well.

"So I'm guessing there will be another meeting between us?" Bernard questioned.

"Most likely, given the circumstances. You're on good terms with us so keep up the good behavior and things will stay that way." Arcadios said as Bernard looked at them both.

"I guess before we go, I guess I should also say thanks for all the letters you guys were sending to me." Bernard said with red cheeks.

"Remember what we said; "affliates." Much closer than "associates." You'll be receiving the money in a few days time." Hisui said with a smile as she extended a hand for a handshake with Bernard as he shook her hand before doing so with Arcadios as well.

"So I guess I can also take my friends with me?" Bernard questioned.

After a couple of hours had passed since Bernard had his conversation with Hisui and Arcadios, the guards of the Magic Council proceeded to uncuff and release Risley, Bacchus and Anatoli, the latter getting his large googly-eyed ball back in return. As they walked out of the front gates of the councils headquarters, the trio of wizards met up with Bernard, who was standing in front of the gate with Corvus, Vulp and Baurs with him.

'"Sight for sore eyes," huh?" Corvus joked as he looked at Anatoli, rolling on his ball.

"More than you'd know!" Anatoli said happily as he sat on his ball.

"I'm guessing the "early release" was your doing?" Risley said as she walked forward and petted Vulp, the fox Celestial Spirit enjoying the feeling.

"More or less..." Bernard said as he took off his beanie and scratched his head before putting it back on. _"Now I have "business partners" in the government... This is so weird..."_ He thought, still unsure of what had transpired between himself and the princess and general of the Rune Knights.

"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever." Bacchus said unenthusiastically as the others looked at him. "Now that I'm out of the pen, I'm going to go celebrate with a nice pub crawl. Monkey boy, you want in?" He said as he turned towards Anatoli.

"Little tired so I might just head home but next time you're in Hemlock, hit me up." Anatoli said as he looked at Bacchus.

"Adios, losers! Hehehe." Bacchus said as he fist bumped with Anatoli before walking away from the group.

"I should probably mosey on out of here too, the girls at Mermaid Heel are probably worried about where I am." Risley said as she begun to walk away. "Oh and Bernard, don't forget about that date you made with that brunette friend of yours to come to Mermaid Heels restaurant! Holding you to it for the business!" She said with a jovial tone as she walked away, leaving behind a blushing Bernard, his pets and Anatoli.

"A little oceanside rendezvous? Hehehe." Anatoli said jokingly as Bernard glared at him.

_"Just hoping there's no Flying Fish on the menu..."_ Bernard thought, hoping for nothing that would make him sick.

Unbeknownst to the pair, a certain young woman they were familiar with had come from behind and proceeded to launch two fists covered in barrier orbs into their backsides, knocking them both to the ground as Bernards pets looked over at the two of them clutching at their spines in pain.

"Oh what the- ahh!" Anatoli exclaimed in pain as he and Bernard turned around and looked up to see the angered expression of Camilla standing over them as Tavio walked up next to her.

"Uhm!? Hi?!" Bernard said fearfully.

"You two morons are so lucky I can't beat you both to a pulp in front of the Magic Councils offices!" Camilla shouted angrily.

"Okay calm down!" Bernard said as he and Anatoli sat on the ground with their hands up in a fearful manner before turning his attention towards Tavio. "Hey, you're still here?" He questioned.

"Yeah?" Tavio replied in his deep tone.

"Figured you would have hightailed it after I got arrested." Bernard said as Vulp approached Bernard to check on him.

"Ehh I finished my workout and I figured-" Tavio said with his deep tone until Camilla spoke up.

"I threatened to rip his head off if he ran." Camilla said with her arms folded as Tavio looked at her.

"No! I was- eep!" Tavio said in his shrill voice until he suddenly looked up at Camilla, giving him a harsh glare, prompting the tiger-furred Exceed to run over to Baurs and hide behind her large rock body as Bernard and Anatoli stood up.

"Come on, we're going home." Camilla said in a stern tone as Bernard and Anatoli looked at eachother for a bit.

"We gotta make sure if we fight people again, it's not going to be in public..." Anatoli said towards Bernard.

"Or just not fight people in general..." Bernard replied back.

"Get moving!" Camilla shouted as Bernard, his pet team and Anatoli on his ball begun to walk behind her.

"Ahh excuse me!" Said an unfamiliar voice as the trio of Psycho Circus wizards and magical creatures turned around to notice one of the frog-headed men from the Magic Council had appeared.

"What they do now?" Camilla said as she pointed at Anatoli and Bernard.

'"Hey!"' Bernard and Anatoli said simultaneously in an offended manner.

"Oh nothing in terms of problem, I'm just delivering a message from the princess to a Mr. Bernard O'Halloran." The frog headed man said as he gave Bernard a letter with a royal insignia on it before walking away.

_"Oh what now?"_ Bernard thought with his eyes rolling as looked at the letter as Anatoli and Camilla approached him.

"Something happen?" Camilla asked.

"Hold on, let me see." Bernard replied as he opened the letter and begun to read it.

"What's up? What the jade-haired cutie want now?" Corvus asked as he flew over to Bernards shoulder.

"It... Doesn't look like we are leaving Era just yet, guys..." Bernard said as he finished reading before putting the letter in his pocket.

"And why's that?" Anatoli asked as the others looked with confusion.

"Apparently the royal family set me up with a meeting with some wizard here in town in a few hours... And I'm getting something as a "gift?"' Bernard said confused.

'"...Huh?"' Camilla, Anatoli, Baurs, Corvus and Tavio muttered in confusion, unsure of what he meant.

* * *

**Ahhhh prison... Good times; exercising outside, eating three square meals, making wine in a toilet and you only ever had to worry about getting stabbed when someone smuggled in a shiv up their- Uhhh, nevermind sorry. ****Anyway****: Bernard and friends had been arrested for their lack of care for the destruction they caused in Hemlock, prompting them to stay close to a day in a cell in the Magic Council dungeon in Era. However, things turned around ****surprisingly**** fast thanks to a reunion between Bernard, Hisui and Arcadios. Revealing that they have been spying on him to keep track of his progress in Psycho Circus since rejoining, they revealed they have been favoring him due to him actually "thinking before acting," not counting what happened over rum cake. Freeing him and his associates from prison and giving him a sizable loan of money to improve the guildhall, on the condition he still acts with "sense," the princess and general of the Rune Knights apparently have one more offering to give our young beanie-wearing protag. But what could this "gift" be? Who is this wizard they are meeting up with? Find out next time on Menagerie! **

**Authors Note: (This is actually the longest chapter I have written in a good long time. Sorry it took so long.)**


	59. Chapter 58

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Era, 12:13 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Away from the center of town where the Magic Council building was located, Bernard and his friends from Psycho Circus were waiting around in an underpopulated section of town as he and Camilla were sitting next to eachother on a bench with Bernard rubbing his girlfriends shoulders.

"Ahhh... Thanks, I needed this." Camilla said as Bernard kneaded his hands into Camillas upper back.

"Jeez, why're you this tense?" Bernard said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, I don't know? Maybe it had something to do with a certain beanie wearing workaholic and his shirtless chimp friend getting arrested for fighting in public." Camilla said as she turned her head back to look at him, a look of embarrassment forming on his face.

"Uh-huh..." Bernard muttered as he looked at Camilla.

"Had to go back to the guildhall and tell everyone, they thought you guys were going away for a lot longer than a day. Then I had to have a chat with your father about all this before I had to start looking for your stupid sweaty tiger." Camilla said as she turned her head straight as Bernard continued to rub her backside.

"...What did the bowling pin say?" Bernard said out of curiosity.

"The usual bad humor: "Oh? Maybe he can get us some new members with the cellmates!"' Camilla said, repeating what Master Barnum said as Bernards eye twitched in annoyance.

_"...He would say something like that..."_ Bernard thought.

"And even if you did go to jail, you wouldn't bring convicts into Psycho Circus... Right?" Camilla questioned as Bernard made a surprised expression.

"Hell no!" Bernard exclaimed.

"Hey!" Anatoli shouted as Bernard and Camilla turned their heads towards the direction of the screaming.

"Heads up!" Corvus said with a smirk as he swatted Anatolis ball with his wing and caused it to bounce.

"Give me back my ball!" Anatoli exclaimed as he ran after his ball as Vulp headbutted the ball out of the way for him to grab it. "Damn it you stupid mongrels! Stop messing with my ball!" He said loudly as he continued to run after his ball.

"Yo! "Tiger fur!" Give it a whack!" Corvus exclaimed as he was flying in the air as Tavio ran up towards the ball on the ground.

"Time to show my real strength!" Tavio said in his fake deep voice as he rushed at the ball.

As he ran up to the ball, Tavios tiny feet had tripped on a part of the concrete and proceeded to fall forward onto his face. Leaving an indent in the ground, Anatoli had managed to quickly grab his ball and sat down on it, using his Wind Magic to float up into the air.

"Finally!" Anatoli said in a relieved tone as he flew into the air to get away from Bernards pets.

"Awww! Fun times over!" Corvus said as he flew up to the disgruntled Anatoli in the air as Tavio and Vulp looked upward at them.

"Shut up you dumb finch!" Anatoli shouted as Corvus got offended.

"I'm not a finch! I'm a crow!" Corvus exclaimed angrily.

"Hey! Will both of you shut up?!" Camilla shouted as she stood up from the bench as she caught the flying wizard and the crow Celestial Spirits attention.

'"Ye-yes ma'am!"' Anatoli and Corvus said fearfully as Bernard looked at Camilla.

"Not the best idea to shout either you know..." Bernard said casually as Camilla scratched her head.

"I know, I know." Camilla said as she shook her head as she looked around at the buildings and concrete streets of Era. "Hey, anything on that note say anything about what this wizard we're supposed to be meeting looks like?" She asked as Bernard took out the note he had received earlier that day.

"No, the letter said that this wizard would be able to easily spot us." Bernard said as he read it over.

"They're probably looking for a pile of animals or a shirtless man on a ball." Camilla said as she pointed at Anatoli still bickering with Corvus in the air.

"Pardon?" A female voice said as Camilla and Bernard looked over.

Approaching the pair at the bench was a young woman with long silvery-white hair with a blue hairband and a swirl of hair on top of her head. Dressed in low cut blue and white dress that had a myriad of white feathers frilled around the bottom and a set of fake white wings sticking out the back and open toed shoes with white wings attached them, she appeared similarly to an angel with a cool expression on her face.

"Yes? Did you need something?" Camilla asked as she looked at the young woman.

"I'm looking for someone I was supposed to be meeting here. The note I was given described a "smart-looking man with a fowl attitude and a beanie cap on."' The young woman described as Camilla turned to look at Bernard as the young man had a furrowed brow of agitation from the description.

'"Fowl attitude" and a "beanie cap" is true but "smart-looking" might be a bit of a stretch." Camilla said with a smirk as Bernard glared at her over her comments.

"Oh! Good, I found you." The young woman said as she extended her hand out for a handshake as Bernard stood up.

"Methods aside, it's nice to meet you. I'm Bernard." Bernard said as he introduced himself. "This is Camilla and the guy floating up there arguing with the bird is Anatoli." He said as he pointed upward, Corvus overhearing as he flew downward towards Bernard.

"Hey! Who you calling a bird?!" Corvus said as he perched on Bernards shoulder while complaining. "I'll show you a "bird!"' The crow bellowed as he begun to peck his master in the head.

"Ow! Ahh!" Bernard exclaimed as Corvus continued to stab Bernard with his beak. "Knock it off you jackass!" He said as he swung his arm around to get Corvus to stop.

"Both of you knock it off!" Camilla shouted as Bernard and Corvus stopped fighting as Anatoli, Tavio and Vulp approached everyone. "Sorry about them." She said towards the feathery girl.

_"She looks familiar..."_ Anatoli thought as he looked at her.

"Interesting avian creature. And a fox and a cat?" The girl said as she looked downwards at Vulp and Tavio. "I guess it makes sense what they asked of me but it seems like such a odd deal..." She said, talking to herself.

"Excuse me?" Camilla said.

"Oh sorry, I still haven't introduced myself properly. My name is Sorano Agria but to most, they know me as "Angel."' Sorano said, revealing herself.

'"Agria?"' Bernard reiterated. "Any relation to Yukino Agria?" He asked out of curiosity.

"She's my little sister." Sorano said. "Been doing random independent work so I haven't been around the Sabertooth guild to say hi." She explained.

'"Angel!"' That's how I know you! You used to be a part of that dark guild, the Oracion Seis!" Anatoli said loudly as he pointed at her.

"Shhhh!" Sorano shushed as she wanted the chimp-like wizard to keep his mouth shut. "Don't go saying that kind of stuff out loud!" She said in a loud yet quiet tone.

"Oh uh... Sorry." Anatoli said embarrassingly as Camilla and Bernard looked at him with annoyance.

"Look, let's cut to the chase, the royal family sent you here to see me?" Bernard said as he turned back towards Sorano.

"Well... Before we begin, I'll start by saying this; the royal family gave me an exuberant amount of Jewel just for this job and I was very surprised." Sorano said as Bernard bit his lip.

"..."An exuberant amount of Jewel" huh?" Bernard said with a slightly annoyed tone. _"...More of that "money spent on things that's not property damage is money well spent" stuff." _He thought begrudgingly. "Well... What did they ask you to do? Something about a "gift?"' Bernard asked.

"Yes. And if I have what you are looking for, you came to the right place." Sorano said as she looked at the trio from Psycho Circus.

"What's that?" Camilla said.

"The princess asked me to give you one of my "Angels."' Sorano said with a smirk to the surprise and confusion of the others.

"...Your what?" Anatoli said with a raised eyebrow as Sorano walked away slightly to give herself some space.

"I shall show you." Sorano said with a smile as she stood back from the rest of the group as she raised her hand in the air, her body glowing as a magic circle formed under feet.

Shielding their eyes from the harsh glow, the group looked on as the light begun to slowly dissipate as they finally were able to get their sight back. Looking up, behind Sorano, was a large and winged figure that disturbed them. Tall and teal blue in color, the giant figure had five faces with horns in their mouths with four arms, four angel-like wings, tiny feet and a dragon-like tail.

_"The hell is this thing?" _Bernard thought as he and the rest of the group looked on at the creepy creature that Sorano summoned.

"This is Raguel, one of my adorable Angels. And one of the byproducts of my magic." Sorano said with a confident tone as Camilla approached it.

"...Why does it look so malformed?" Camilla asked as Soranos expression turned into one of insult.

'"Malformed?!"' Sorano retorted. "This is an Angel! It's a beautiful creature made from holy energy! I spent years in prison cultivated how to create and summon these magnificent symbols of my personal desires! Only so many people alive can wish they had access to one of these!" She continued as the group looked at her with confusion.

"I guess your definition of "beauty" is incredibly specific..." Anatoli said as he floated up to the face of the disturbing Angel, Raguel. Pointing his finger forward to touch it, the Angel proceeded to blow one of its horns, startling Anatoli as he fell backwards towards the ground. "Ahhh! Ugh!" He screamed as he hit the ground.

"That's what you get for attempting to touch my Angel!" Sorano said annoyed as she looked at the downed wizard as Tavio and Vulp walked over to him.

"So this thing-" Bernard said before getting cut off by Sorano.

'"Angel!"' Sorano exclaimed angrily.

"Sorry... So this Angel, why did you show us this?" Bernard asked.

"As per the deal that was given to me by the royal family, I am to give you one of my Angels." Sorano said as Bernard looked at Corvus and then Camilla.

"...You're going to give me a manifestation of your magic?" Bernard said with a skeptical expression in his eyes.

"I'm not entirely sure how it's supposed to be possible but the princess and that general in the note I was given said something about your "high magical reserves" and "commanding habit?"' Sorano said as she looked over the note. "Granted, I was happy to see someone recognized my beautiful darlings for the wonders that they are. Given the cash I was given, I was happy to arrive to showcase my Angels to see which one's you wish to get a copy of." She said as she looked up at Raguel, admiring it.

_"...What an eyesore..." _Camilla thought as she continued to stare at the horn holding entity

_'"Creature made from holy energy?" It looks like a conjoined baby monster with wings and trumpets..."_ Corvus thought as he stared at it as well.

"Uhhhh... Can you excuse us for a minute Sorano? Little "Psycho Circus" meeting." Bernard said as he motioned for Camilla and the flying Corvus to join him over to the bench as Sorano looked over at Anatoli, still face down on the pavement as she dispelled Raguel, as Tavio and Vulp poked at him with the foxes tail.

"Whatcha think? You think you could use one of those freaky things?" Camilla asked in as silent a way as possible.

"I already have something terrifying and it's made of demonic sludge and spikes inside my pacemaker." Bernard said with a shrug.

"I get what you're saying but you're the one wanting to get more things to use for your animal show." Corvus said as he flapped his wings at eyelevel to the others.

"He makes a point..." Camilla said.

"Yeah... But we have still have an issue with me holding Tavio. What am I going to do with a giant angelic monstrosity walking behind me all day?" Bernard explained. "What do you think?" He said towards Camilla.

"Not my call, it's more of your strange "pet army."' Camilla said with an unsure tone.

'"Pet army?"' Bernard said with a weird expression.

"Oh yeah, this could also be a problem with living arrangements..." Corvus said as he caught the pairs attention.

"Another fair point..." Camilla said. "Not gonna lie, I already have tons of issues with sharing our home with a bunch of random creatures, another one of these weird pets of yours running around and I think I'll get a constant headache..." She said as she rubbed the back of her neck.

"Hey! I'm not just some random "thing!" I have feelings!" Corvus complained as Camilla glared at him.

"Oh really? Then tell me; who's the one who has been rummaging through my underwear drawer?" Camilla said with a suspicious tone as Corvus sweated slightly, pulling on his Psycho Circus collar with his talon.

"Well... Uh... Hehe..." Corvus muttered nervously as Bernard shook his head.

"On top of that." Camilla said before looking towards Bernard. "Baurs tracks mud in the house sometimes because she's made of rocks, Tavio sweats like crazy because he's a fitness nut without wiping himself off and ever since you told him that you were going to be his owner, Vulps been laying on our bed more often while we've been sleeping." She said, rattling off different issues.

"You like Vulp sleeping with us! You said he feels like an "extra soft pillow" that caresses you!" Bernard retorted.

"...Okay, Vulp's fine, I do like those soft cushy rubs he gives me with his tail..." Camilla said with a smirk as she rubbed her backside. _"Vulp's the only one of his pets I like, he's like a cute and cuddly canine buddy... Still not entirely happy the one moment of the day I can have a little bit of romance is now being intruded by my boyfriends overly loyal pet fox..."_ She thought as Bernard rubbed his forehead.

"Look, she's already been paid, which is something I had no control over given how the royal family operates, so regardless... I'm going to have to walk out of here with some odd new monster..." Bernard said. _"I know I wanted to look for more beasts but this last twenty four hours have been so discombobulating, I'm barely able to think straight so screw it..."_ He thought annoyed.

"...Maybe we can ask her for help with some way to carry one of these things without it being a pain on our home life?" Camilla said with a shrug as Bernard scratched his head as the group walked back towards Sorano.

"Yes?" Sorano asked.

"I don't think Raguel was really "my" kind of thing... You have anything else?" Bernard said begrudgingly as Sorano made a bothered expression.

"Yeah, I have loads more of my darling Angels to show." Sorano said as she walked back to give more space to call more Angels.

_"Okay... I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like any of these..."_ Bernard said while biting his lip with mediocre expectations.

"Haaa!" Sorano exclaimed as she raised her hands once more, glowing lights forming as another one of her Angels began to form. Much different than the last one, this entity was also large in size but now look more like a winged infant with a pompadour-like hairstyle and a toga. It's blank face, much different than the last Angel, also sported a noticeable smile and strangely, sticking out of its hair, was two pig-like creatures with large snouts. "This one is named Shamsiel, it's quite powerful and can use impressively destructive blasts of light energy." She explained.

"Hmmmm..." Bernard mumbled as he looked at the Angel, striking a pose with it's arms outstretched.

"Not a big liking to you either huh?" Corvus whispered next to Camilla.

"Nope..." Camilla replied.

"...Not much of a fan of this one either..." Bernard said as Sorano looked shocked at his statement, the giant cherub Angel suddenly morphing its stone-like expression into one of surprise as it fell to its knees from displeasure.

"Why?! What's wrong with Shamsiel!? Sorano angrily asked.

"Nothing against it but... At this moment in my life, I don't think I need a baby around my house or guild..." Bernard said as he rubbed the back of his head. _"Good recovery Bernard..." _He thought, trying to protect himself from bothering Sorano.

"Grrrr..." Sorano growled in frustration as she dispelled Shamsiel as it disappeared into particles. "Well then, here's another that might work." She said as she lifted her arms up once again. Much different from the first set of Angels, instead of appearing in one giant glow, the new Angels she summoned were in much smaller form, taking the appearance of three winged white clouds with mouths that had rows of sharp shark-like teeth that were floating behind Sorano.

_"Hmmm? Well... These look better..."_ Bernard thought as he looked at the clouds.

"These are my "Devouring Angels," they have a penchant for biting things and are weaker than Raguel and Shamsiel But they are adorable beyond compare." Sorano said as one of the winged cloud Angels floated over to her as she petted it.

Suddenly showing interest, Corvus proceeded to fly over to one of the cloud Angels, looking at it with suspicion.

"What's up?" Bernard said towards Corvus.

"Hey, question?" Corvus said towards Sorano. "What's the difference between these things and a Light Elemental?" The crow asked as Sorano once again made an offended expression.

"Do not compare my Angels to some random creature made of light..." Sorano said disgruntled.

"Wait... But you said earlier, these things are creatures made of "holy energy," you're literally describing a Light Elemental." Corvus replied.

"And as I already stated, these are "Angels!" Not "Light Elementals" or "things!"' Angel said, starting to yell as she began to flail her arms in a childish manner.

"Okay, calm down, Sorano." Bernard said, trying to calm down the angelic wizard.

_"Actually, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I have to agree with the bird... What's the difference between these weird monstrosities and one of those Elemental things like Baurs?"_ Camilla thought as she looked on.

"Besides, we have enough "flyers" in the group with me and "whiskers" over there." Corvus stated as he pointed his talon at Tavio, who was now using the still downed Anatoli as a trampoline while Vulp watched. "We really don't need these puffy gap-toothed balls following us- Ahhh!" The crow continued until he suddenly noticed the Devouring Angels had become agitated by his insults and opened their mouths wide to attempt to bite him.

With Corvus flying in the opposite direction, the Devouring Angels continued to try and bite the crow Celestial Spirit for his comments as he flew away in an effort to avoid getting hurt as Camilla, Bernard and Sorano just looked at him making an ass of himself.

"Is he always that rude and obnoxious?" Sorano said with her arms folded.

"Yes." Bernard stated bluntly.

"Uh-huh..." Camilla muttered.

"Well? How about them?" Sorano said as she pointed at the cloud Angels, now chasing Corvus in a circle above the ground.

"...I think I'll pass on them too..." Bernard said with an embarrassed tone as Sorano began to violently shake with annoyance.

"Gaaah!" Sorano exclaimed in frustration. "Fine!" She said as she snapped her fingers and her Devouring Angels dispelled into particles, finally allowing Corvus a moment of reprieve as he flew down to the ground, panting from exhaustion. "Then what do you actually want?!" Sorano asked.

"Sorry for him being kinda picky, he's looking for something a bit more "specific."' Camilla said as she approached Bernard and Sorano.

'"Specific?" How so?" Sorano questioned.

"Well, I'm pretty sure you didn't get any context in the note but our guild holds a showcase for wizard performers and I've been trying to put another show together for magical creatures but as of right now; I have an electric crow, a shapeshifting fox, a loud flying cat, a large lizard made of stone and a big demonic slime..." Bernard explained as Sorano raised an eyebrow.

"In other words, we're looking for something a bit more... Animalistic?" Camilla asked. "And preferably something he can handle carrying around?" She continued as Sorano pondered their words.

"Hmmmm... I do have a method for travel for my Angels, it's a technique I used to use back when I first developed my magic." Sorano said as she held out her hand.

With a bright glow of light, a set of four golden coins had appeared within her outstretched hand as Bernard, Camilla and the returning Corvus looked over at them with confusion.

"Coins?" Bernard said as he picked one up.

"How will these help?" Corvus said as he looked at them.

"Back when I was first developing my techniques, I used this method for summoning my Angels. I would pay a "fine" of sorts to call them. After a long time of practice, I learned how to summon my Angels without any need for these coins." Sorano explained.

"What kind of "fine?"' Camilla asked.

"A "life" fine. I would sacrifice part of my "living time" to summon my darlings back when I first was trying to use my magic." Sorano said with a dark smile as the others looked up at her.

"Wait?! You were... Giving up your life just to summon these things?!" Bernard exclaimed with surprise.

"It was back when I was a dark wizard, of course. Those days are long behind me and if you want to seriously have one of my Angels at your disposal, you're probably going to need this method if you're worried about closet space." Sorano explained as she put the coins in Bernards hand.

"Hold it! Hold it!" Camilla said. "I'm definitely not comfortable with anyone making "sacrifices" just to summon some strange monsters." She said.

"Angels!" Sorano shouted, attempting to adjust her phrasing.

"Sorry, whatever!" Camilla said as she rolled her eyes.

_'"Life force"_ _huh?"_ Bernard thought as he looked down towards his chest as Anatoli finally proceeded to get up from the ground, causing Tavio to fall off him and startle Vulp.

"Yeah! No ones going to be happy if Bernie suddenly keels over just from having one of your weird things?!" Anatoli exclaimed as he got back on his ball.

"For the hundredth time! They're "Angels!"' Sorano shouted, getting more and more fed up with the groups inability to refer to her summons correctly.

"Shut up everybody!" Bernard angrily screamed, startling Camilla, Anatoli, the creatures and even Sorano, who was not expecting him to show so much rage. "I can't think with all of this in the background!" He loudly exclaimed as he examined the coins. "Sorano, I'll take the coin method." Bernard said to the surprise of everyone.

"What?!" Camilla said with a tone of resentment.

"Look, I got this!" Bernard said as he put his hand up to get his girlfriend not to argue with him. "Okay, look... I need something a bit more beastly in form because everything I have right now has a bit of a "circus animal" vibe to it. Please, tell me you have anything that fits that description?" He asked as Sorano looked at him.

"Well... Yes, I do have one. It's a "she" and she won't talk back much but she can be a bit of handful when it comes to a certain... "Desire" of hers." Sorano said as she rubbed her chin.

'"Desire?"' Anatoli replied.

"Shall I be frank?" Sorano said as the entire group looked at her. "This Angel fits your specifications and will listen but to get her to be as obedient as possible, you'll need to let her stab things." She explained to the confusion of the group.

_'"Stab?"' _The collective of Psycho Circus wizards and Bernards pets thought with disturbed confusion as Sorano took back the coins from Bernards hand.

"Allow me." Sorano said as she stepped back to give room to summon her Angel.

With a bright glow behind her, Sorano had made a new Angel appear but this one had more of an appealing form to the group. Instead of looking like clouds or cherubs, this Angel took the form of a large female deer with a greyish turquoise colored body, blank eyes and a tail that was slightly longer than normal. On the sides of her body were a set of blank face masks, similar to ones previously adorned by Soranos other Angels and noticeably on her head was a peculiar set of large white spiked antlers that had miniature sets of angelic wings scattered throughout it.

"Whoa, that's much better than the last ones." Camilla stated as Bernard and the others nodded in response while Soranos eye begun to twitch from the continued insults over her cherished beings.

"If we're done insulting my Angels... This one's name is Zaphkiel." Sorano said as she presented the angelic deer to the group.

"Huh, this one's actually pretty cool." Bernard said as he looked at Zaphkiel. _"It's not as malformed or disturbing as the other ones, it might not scare anybody." _He thought with a relieved tone.

"Wait if it's female, why does it have such large horns?" Corvus asked.

"She's a very masculine doe and her horns are sharp enough to pierce armor. One hard charge and bam! Holes for days... Or bleeding wounds." Sorano explained.

"Sounds like she's a good match for Vulp with his spikey fur." Camilla said as she looked at Vulp who was merely staring at the Angel deer.

As they looked, Zaphkiel proceeded to look at Anatolis ball, prompting the monkey-like wizard to make a face of confusion. Pulling back her leg for a charge, Anatolis eyes widened as Zaphkiel proceeded to rush at Anatoli with its head down and horns facing out. Jumping high into the air to dodge, Zaphkiel proceeded to pierce Anatolis ball, deflating it.

"Ahhh!" Anatoli said as he landed on his feet as he looked at his destroyed ball. "My ball!" He exclaimed in a despaired tone.

"Hey what was that for?!" Corvus exclaimed as Zaphkiel turned her attention towards the crow. Charging up her legs once more, the Angel deer proceeded to jump high into the air as Corvus, in a moment of impulse, flew higher into the sky to avoid getting stabbed. "Whahaha!?" The crow stuttered in fear.

"What the hells wrong with- whoa!" Bernard tried to say before the deer landed on her feet and turned her attention towards Bernard, prompting it to attempt to stab him as well as it charged at him.

To stop it from causing more trouble, Camilla quickly got in front of Bernard and lifted her hands up as a row of barriers formed, Tavio hiding behind Bernard out of fear from the rampaging Angel. To assist, Vulp whipped out his tail and stretched it to wrap around the body of Zaphkiel in an attempt to stop her as she begun to stab through Camillas barriers, one by one.

_"So strong!"_ Camilla thought as she tried to hold her barriers up as Vulp continued to try and pull on Zaphkiel to stop her tirade.

"Enough!" Sorano screamed, prompting Zaphkiel to stop moving as the deer turned her head towards the wizard. "No more stabbing!" She ordered as the deer calmed down, prompting everyone but Anatoli, who was still crying over his destroyed ball, to breath a sigh of relief.

"The hell's wrong with this damn doe?!" Corvus exclaimed angrily.

"As I stated, she enjoys stabbing things. Whenever I've summoned her, she appears to first find a target to impale on her winged horns and won't stop until satisfied." Sorano said with a shrug.

"We aren't taking something this dangerous!" Camilla shouted.

"Look, this is part of the deal! I have to give you access to one of my Angels and "beanie boy" here wants one that's more akin to an animal and this is all I have to offer after you insulted my other Angels appearances! Take it or leave it!" Sorano retorted, becoming more and more fed up with the situation as Bernard and Tavio got out from behind Camilla.

"...Okay fine, I'll figure out something with her. Just... Tell her to not stab me, okay?" Bernard requested as Sorano nodded.

"Zaphkiel, as part of a deal that I was given, this man is your new master. You are to follow his orders and not stab him. If you're on your best behavior, he may let you stab something else for your enjoyment. Got it?" Sorano explained to the deer as it simply nodded before walking over to the slightly fearful Bernard, standing at his side as if waiting for an order.

"...Well... At least, it's not trying to kill us anymore..." Corvus said with a disgruntled tone.

"How do I return it back for me to carry around?" Bernard asked of Sorano. _"Okay so... "Life force..." If I just use my pacemakers energy instead of my own, it won't affect me on a physical level so that way I can summon this psycho with no repercussions... Except for its murderous tendencies." _He nervously thought.

"Hold out your hand, give it some of your life juice and it will return to its coin form." Sorano said.

Holding out his hand and dispelling some of his energy, Bernard transferred it to Zaphkiel as she transformed from her deer form into a set of four golden coins that were now placed in Bernards hand. Looking at it for a second, Bernard then proceeded to put them in his pants pocket.

"Are we done here? Good, this was annoying..." Sorano said, finally giving her opinion on the situation.

"Sorry for the trouble and thanks for the deer- I mean, Angel." Bernard said as the others gave her a wave goodbye.

"You're welcome and I hope we don't meet again soon." Sorano said with a bothered tone as she walked away. _"He's so lucky the royal family paid for this... Those zeroes on the end of the check kept me from letting Zaphkiel just impale his douchebag ass..." _She thought with aggravation as she walked down the road, away from the Psycho Circus wizards and Bernards pets.

"Well now we added a bigger "black sheep" than the tiger..." Corvus said as Tavio flew up to Corvus with his wings.

"Hey! Who you calling a sheep?!" Tavio said with his deep voice.

"The guy who hid behind the kid because he's afraid of charging deer." Corvus said with a smirk as Tavio just continued to look angry.

"Enough you two... I just want to go home now." Bernard said as he walked over to Anatoli with Camilla. "You okay?" He asked as his slightly naked friend was still sobbing.

"My baaaallll!" Anatoli screamed as he was over the discarded remains of his ball that startled Camilla and Bernard.

"Hey, calm down, it's going to be alright. We'll find you a new one!" Camilla said in a reassuring tone as Anatoli continued to sob.

"This day freaking sucks! Wahaha!" Anatoli tearfully shouted as he slammed his head on the ground.

_"He's not wrong there... Now I have an extremely violent deer to take care of... I just want some sleep... And a pie from Kiernans..."_ Bernard thought as he scratched his head.

* * *

**Let's have a moment of silence for Anatoli's ball... Okay that'll do. Bernard and co. were still stuck in Era as they waited for a wizard that was sent to meet them from the royal family. Lo and behold, the wizard happened to be Sorano Agria, ****formerly**** known as the Oracion Seis member "Angel." With a large payment in her hands, she was told to give Bernard access to one of her Angel creatures but their ****off-putting**** appearances kept them from being anything Bernard wanted until she summoned one last Angel; an incredibly violent female stag named Zaphkiel. With Sorano giving Bernard her Angel, Anatoli's ball destroyed and the group out of prison; will stuff return to normal? What will happen to Anatoli now that he ****doesn't**** have his ball? Is there a shop in town that can provide a suitable replacement? Is there bandages and air pumps capable of fixing it? WILL ZAPHKIEL PAY FOR WHAT SHE DID!?... Okay, I'll be quiet now. Till next time!**

**Authors Note: (Hey, I'm sorry I took so long for this chapter to get done compared to the others, I had a LOT of stuff happen to me on a personal level these last number of weeks so the time for me to write was dwindling but I finally got it done.)**


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